UCF recognized as 'Tree Campus USA'

The University of Central Florida was recognized for the first time as a "Tree Campus USA" from the Arbor Day Foundation on Friday for having met the standards developed to promote healthy trees and student involvement.

The award acceptance celebration took place at the Garden Key room in the Student Union from 8:30 to 9:45, with an optional tree tour around campus guided by Dr. Patrick Bohlen, director of UCF Land and Natural Resources and Arboretum.

Ever since the Tree Campus USA program began in 2008, 25 universities have been recognized by Tree Campus USA, and UCF is one of three Florida schools that have made the list. In April, UCF Land & Natural Resources will plant about 300 new trees on campus to celebrate Arbor Day.

Some of the attendees included coordinator of the Florida Division of Forestry Charlie Marcus and UCF President John Hitt, who both admired and thanked the dedicated efforts of those who made the award a reality.

After the event, Marcus, who had come from Tallahassee to recognize the university, was satisfied with the atmosphere he experienced on campus.

"I can tell that the hard efforts to make UCF green have paid off," Marcus said. "I'm delighted to see the connection between the students and the trees on campus. It looks like the community enjoys how its campus looks."

To receive the Tree Campus USA award, UCF had to meet the Arbor Day Foundation's five core standards for promoting healthy management of green initiatives to preserve the environment. The standards are: establishing a campus tree advisory committee; completing a campus tree-care plan; allocating annual expenditures to the campus tree program; educating the campus community; and completing service-learning projects engaging the student body.

UCF Land Manager Alaina Bernard, along with her UCF Natural Resources teammates, had to submit an application for the award. She believes that because of the university's size it is difficult to maintain student awareness of the hard work put behind a green campus, but she's confident students enjoy the output.

For Bernard, having been recognized by a national organization is not only an objective accomplishment but also a commitment to the environment, which includes the community as well.

"The benefits of planting trees include improved air quality and decreased energy consumption and improvement on the quality of life on campus by making it a more beautiful and enjoyable place to live, work and visit," she said.

And making UCF more environmental-friendly is not the only purpose on the agenda for Bernard and her team.

The award, she said, also comes from the combination of involving and teaching students about natural management, education and research. Their goal: To educate people of what it takes to maintain the landscape.

Jason Toedter, senior biology major, is one of the students involved with UCF Landscape and Natural Resources who helped the campus qualify for the award.

"It's a great and rewarding feeling because people in the future will look back at all these trees from our generation and see how hard we worked to make it a beautiful campus for them," he said.

"Our job is to give UCF a unique aesthetic personality. This award demonstrates we are on the right path of doing it correctly," Toedter said.

The department seeks to enrich the community by creating and maintaining an inviting outdoor environment, providing high quality service for operational activities and generating research and educational initiatives that guide stewardship of natural resources.  

For more information about UCF's green initiatives, visit http://green.ucf.edu.