Franklin College was honored with a 2020 Tree Campus Higher Education recognition by the Arbor Day Foundation for its commitment to effective urban forest management. This marks the eighth consecutive year the college has earned the distinction.

“Tree Campuses and their students set examples for not only their student bodies but the surrounding communities showcasing how trees create a healthier environment,” said Dan Lambe, president of the Arbor Day Foundation. “Because of Franklin College’s participation, air will be purer, water cleaner and students and faculty will be surrounded by the shade and beauty trees provide.”

The Tree Campus Higher Education program honors colleges and universities for effective campus forest management and for engaging staff and students in conservation goals. Franklin College achieved the title by meeting Tree Campus Higher Education’s five standards, which include maintaining a tree advisory committee, a campus tree-care plan, dedicated annual expenditures for its campus tree program, an Arbor Day observance and student service-learning project. Currently there are 403 campuses across the United States with this recognition.

“COVID made achieving the requirements much harder this year,” said Alice Heikens, Ph.D., professor of biology. “We would not have received this honor without the work of Dr. Amber Yount, assistant professor of biology, and her First Year Seminar class, and the generosity of Emeritus Professor Doreen St. Clair. Together they donated funds and planted six trees in Grizzly Park. Also, the student member of our Campus Greenscape Committee, Logan Vandermark, was instrumental in recruiting additional student volunteers. This coupled with the dedication of the Physical Facilities grounds crew enabled us to meet our goals.”

The Arbor Day Foundation has helped campuses throughout the country plant thousands of trees and Tree Campus Higher Education colleges and universities invested more than $51 million in campus forest management last year. This work directly supports the Arbor Day Foundation’s Time for Trees initiative – an unprecedented effort to plant 100 million trees in forests and communities and inspire five million tree planters by 2022. Last year, Tree Campus Higher Education schools have collectively planted 39, 178 trees and engaged 81, 535 tree planters – as they worked toward these critical goals.

More information about the program is available at treecampushighered.org.

About the Arbor Day Foundation: The Arbor Day Foundation is a million-member nonprofit conservation and education organization with the mission to inspire people to plant, nurture and celebrate trees. More information is available at arborday.org.

For more information, contact the Franklin College Office of Communications at (317) 738-8185.

POSTED Apr 26, 2021