University receives fifth Tree Campus USA recognition
Virginia Tech has been awarded Tree Campus USA for the fifth consecutive year by the Arbor Day Foundation.
Tree Campus USA is a national program created in 2008 to honor colleges and universities for effective campus forest management and for engaging staff and students in conservation goals. Toyota helped launch the program and continues its generous financial support this year.
Virginia Tech achieved the title by meeting Tree Campus USA’s five standards, which include maintaining a tree advisory committee, a campus tree-care plan, dedicated annual expenditures toward trees, an Arbor Day observance and student service-learning projects.
"The Arbor Day Foundation has been a great partner for us as we continue to develop our tree planting and care efforts on campus. With their help and inspiration, we've developed strategies to energize our students, which is critical to the success of our public tree planting events. We were one of the first schools recognized as a Tree Campus USA and view our re-certification as a critical part of our commitment to trees on the Virginia Tech Campus," said Matthew Gart landscape architect for the Office of University Planning.
The Arbor Day Foundation and Toyota have helped campuses throughout the country plant hundreds of thousands of trees, and Tree Campus USA colleges and universities invested $23 million in campus forest management last year. More information about the program is available at Arbor Day.
Dedicated to its motto, Ut Prosim (That I May Serve), Virginia Tech takes a hands-on, engaging approach to education, preparing scholars to be leaders in their fields and communities. As the commonwealth’s most comprehensive university and its leading research institution, Virginia Tech offers 240 undergraduate and graduate degree programs to more than 31,000 students and manages a research portfolio of $513 million. The university fulfills its land-grant mission of transforming knowledge to practice through technological leadership and by fueling economic growth and job creation locally, regionally, and across Virginia.
