Caring for the canopy: New urban forester to continue Virginia Tech’s tree stewardship
Gothic architecture and Hokie Stone often define first impressions of the Blacksburg campus. However, just as essential are the 11,689 trees that shape those spaces, provide environmental benefits, and contribute to the campus community. The university’s urban forest offers shade, supports biodiversity, and creates outdoor spaces for education, research, and recreation.
Beyond their visual contribution, Virginia Tech’s trees function as a form of living infrastructure, providing measurable benefits to the campus and its users. Just as traditional campus infrastructure has utility purpose, the canopy on the Blacksburg campus provides numerous benefits, including heat island abatement, water filtration, air pollution removal, and de facto wildlife habitats. The urban forest provides research sites, study material, and specimen analysis for faculty and students, and acts as a living outdoor laboratory. Together, these services contribute to the long-term health, resilience and functionality of the university, making its management an investment in the campus community.
As Virginia Tech’s new urban forester, John Guziejka (pronounced Goo-ZEE-kah), is building on a longstanding commitment to the stewardship of the university’s urban forest. Established within the Division of Facilities in 2019, the university’s urban forestry program supports the preservation, management, and long-term care of thousands of trees across campus. In his new role, Guziejka leads this work while helping shape the team’s next chapter. Guziejka and the urban forestry team will further a successful legacy built on collaborative partnerships including the College of Natural Resources and Environment, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and the Virginia Department of Forestry.
Passion to practice
The academic Urban Forestry Program, housed inside the Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation, is a national leader in education, research, and innovation. For Guziejka, joining that effort is an opportunity to collaborate with admired scholars and contribute to a program that inspired his own passion for urban forestry. Before making the move to Blacksburg, he viewed Virginia Tech as a model for urban forestry management, drawing on the Virginia Tech Urban Forestry Framework as inspiration for his own work to expand upon, and following the program from afar.
Having served as the urban forestry and natural resources manager at the University of Central Florida, Guziejka brings over 10 years of experience in university arboriculture and urban forestry. His approach combines technical expertise and an appreciation for Virginia Tech’s rich history and distinctive tree culture fostering thoughtful stewardship of assets that have borne witness to the evolution of campus over decades and, in some cases, centuries.
In his role, Guziejka will champion the university’s existing efforts, including participation in the Tree Campus Higher Education program and student arborist internship opportunities, while working with the campus community to expand initiatives and programs that promote community stewardship and sustainability.
“The true way to push meaningful conservation and preservation of trees and natural areas is to empower the community that occupies those spaces,” Guziejka said. “My job is to build up the platforms and provide the resources for employees, researchers, and students to occupy the seats upon the foundation I create.”
Growing with purpose
Looking ahead, Guziejka seeks to prioritize responsible stewardship and intentional design with the long-term care of one of Virginia Tech’s most valuable natural resources. Taking a quality over quantity approach, Guziejka recognizes the complex and, at times, difficult decisions that need to be made. The campus canopy is a living infrastructure, requiring the same maintenance and care standards applied to manmade structures, while accounting for natural growth and changes throughout the life cycle of each tree. Planting, displacement, and removal decisions need to be made thoughtfully, as the urban forestry team strives to keep campus functional and beautiful for current and future Hokies alike.
“It’s easy, and it may feel good in the moment to plant trees left and right, but true sustainability requires maintenance, and consideration of what that tree will look like in 10, 20, or 100 years,” said Guziejka.
On a campus where faculty, staff, and students explore topics ranging from climate resilience and ecosystem health to biodiversity and the built environment, a well-managed landscape offers real-world opportunities to observe and learn from these systems in action. Under Guziejka’s leadership, every "next step" made by the urban forestry team will serve as an investment in the campus landscape that will continue to define the Hokie experience for generations to come.
