Arbor Day Foundation Names Northeastern State A Tree Campus

Nebraska City, Neb. (March, 2011) Northeastern State Universitys Tahlequah campus recently earned Tree Campus USA recognition for 2010 for its dedication to campus forestry management and environmental stewardship, the nonprofit Arbor Day Foundation announced. This is the first year Northeastern State has been named a Tree Campus USA.

Tree Campus USA is a national program that honors colleges and universities and their leaders for promoting healthy management of their campus forests and for engaging the community in environmental stewardship. Tree Campus USA is a program of the Arbor Day Foundation and is supported by a grant from Toyota.

By encouraging its students to plant trees and participate in service that will help the environment, Northeastern State is making a positive impact on its community that will last for decades, said John Rosenow, chief executive and founder of the Arbor Day Foundation. One goal of the Tree Campus USA program is to help create healthier communities for its citizens through the planting of trees, and the city of Tahlequah will certainly benefit from the universitys commitment to Tree Campus USA.

Northeastern State met the five core standards of tree care and community engagement in order to receive Tree Campus USA status. The standards are: establish a campus tree advisory committee; evidence of a campus tree-care plan; verification of dedicated annual expenditures on the campus tree-care plan; involvement in an Arbor Day observance; and the institution of a service-learning project aimed at engaging the student body.

The Arbor Day Foundation launched Tree Campus USA in the fall of 2008 by planting trees at nine college campuses throughout the United States. Twenty-nine schools were named a Tree Campus USA in 2008, and in three years the number of schools has more than tripled.

More information about the Tree Campus USA program is available on the Arbor Day Foundation's website.