UNCW has been designated a 'Tree Campus College of Higher Education' by the Arbor Day Foundation

Friday, September 23, 2022

UNCW’s commitment to sustainably managing and protecting natural areas and replacing trees lost to storms and construction has earned UNCW accreditation as a “Tree Campus Higher Education University” by the Arbor Day Foundation.

“UNCW actively maintains natural areas for the benefit of our students, faculty and communities,” said Roger, Senior Lecturer in Geo-Marine and Environmental Sciences, who has applied for the designation on behalf of UNCW’s sustainability. Shu said. program. “Natural areas serve as outdoor classrooms for students and educators, recreational areas for walkers and bikers, and wildlife habitats.”

As a coastal university in North Carolina, UNCW manages a unique natural area. The university’s main campus is home to more than 200 acres of woodlands, including 190 acres of longleaf pine and 10 acres of mixed hardwood and pines in the Bruesenthal Wildflower Preserve (Longleaf Pine is colloquially called the “tree that built the south”). ) is available. ). In fact, UNCW’s longleaf pine forest is he one of the few remaining large areas in New Hanover County. The university has 57 acres of woodlands and salt marshes along the Intracoastal Waterway at the Marine Science Center and 174 acres of pine/oak and bottomland hardwood forests in the Evhenwood Preserve in Brunswick County.

According to the foundation, Tree Campus’ higher education programs “celebrate the unique role that leading institutions play in the woods of their communities.” UNCW is one of 27 institutions that have participated in the program over the past year. More than 400 universities nationwide participate.learn more about Tree Campus Higher Education Program Above Arbor Day Foundation website.

A Campus Tree Advisory Board was established to apply for the award. This includes faculty, staff, student members, and community representatives of the NC Cooperative Extension. Care and management of the campus’s natural areas is a collaborative effort of Landscape Services, the Sustainability Office, the Campus Natural Areas Committee, the Buildings and Sites Committee, and other partners, including students.

Tree care best practices include:

• Assessment of tree types on land managed by UNCW
• Approved controlled burning to manage long-leaved forests, a fire-dependent ecosystem
• Landscaping with native plants as often as possible
• Proper pruning, trimming or removal when necessary and replanting when possible
• Integrated pest management

Learn more about the university’s commitment to maintaining riverside natural areas UNCW Sustainability website.

Xu leads the university’s tree planting efforts, working with both campuses and community groups to plant 567 trees in 2020. In 2021, there will be 165 of his pine trees planted on campus and 225 of his pine trees on his Ev-Henwood Reserve in County Brunswick. In 2022, Ev-Henwood will be planted with another 200 longleaf he pines. Shaw said the university lost many trees to his 2018 Hurricane Florence and his 2020 beetle infestations. His 2023 goals include planting at least his 300+ trees and native grasses, main longleaf on his campus and setting up a nature trail in his pine forest, Ev-Henwood and his Bluethenthal Preserves signs.

“UNCW students, faculty and staff appreciate the beauty of natural areas and respect their ecological importance,” he said. “Every year they enthusiastically participate in campus cleaning projects, tree plantings and other sustainability programs. We hope you enjoy our natural areas, and we were lucky enough to have the opportunity to own them and care for them.”

This is in addition to several other accolades UNCW has achieved over the past few years, including Bike-Friendly College, Green Restaurant Accreditation, U.S. Green Building Council, Princeton Review Green School, Bee Campus, and U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon School Award. It will be added. others.

“We are extremely proud of these awards and appreciate the efforts of our students and the university community to make them possible.”

— Andrea Monroe Weaver