The Arbor Day Foundation named UNL a Tree Campus USA site on Nov. 12. To celebrate the achievement, Landscape Services, the Arbor Day Foundation and Toyota held a tree-planting event at UNL to officially kick off Tree Campus USA.

Tree Campus USA, a new program launched by the Arbor Day Foundation, honors college campuses and leaders of surrounding communities for promoting healthy urban forest management and engaging the campus community in environmental stewardship.

The Tree Campus USA program is supported by a $750,000 grant from Toyota.

The program provides funds to plant 100 trees at universities nationwide. Nine universities have been selected to take part – UNL, Northern Kentucky University, University of Michigan, University of Texas, Arizona State, Oregon State, Virginia Tech, University of California-San Diego and Jackson State.

At UNL, the 100 trees are being planted around City and East campus parking lots. With the help of more than 50 volunteers, Landscape Services planted 49 of the trees on Nov. 12-13 – 31 on City Campus, 18 on East Campus. The remaining 51 trees will be planted in the spring.

“Many of the parking lots that will benefit from the Tree Campus USA event are located along streets, so they benefit from the shade the trees will provide,” said Eileen Bergt, director of Landscape Services. “These trees will also provide a beautiful welcome canopy as people enter and exit campus.”

UNL met the five required core standards of tree care and community engagement to receive the Tree Campus USA status. Those standards are establishing 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 students.

For more information about the Tree Campus USA program, go to www.arborday.org/TreeCampusUSA.