MELBOURNE, FLA. — Florida Tech has been recognized as a 2024 Tree Campus by the Arbor Day Foundation for its dedication to enhancing community well-being through tree education, investment and community engagement.
To earn Tree Campus recognition from the Arbor Day Foundation, colleges and universities must uphold five core standards, including maintaining an advisory committee, setting and funding a campus tree care plan, marking Arbor Day and creating a service-learning project aimed at engaging the student body.
“Trees have the power to inspire learning and improve well-being,” said Michelle Saulnier, vice president of programs at the Arbor Day Foundation. “By growing campus green spaces, forward-thinking higher education leaders like Florida Tech are cultivating vibrant learning communities that also benefit the greater environment.”
The Florida Tech community helped the campus retain its tree-filled glory, said Kirk Hemphill, director of maintenance and co-chair of the University Sustainability Committee.
Over the last year, the campus got greener with the planting of five new native trees as part of the university’s sustainability efforts. And all year, dedicated landscape and grounds staff work to prune and maintain the health of the campus trees, ensuring their continued growth and vitality. “This year was a great success for our Campus Tree Care Program,” Hemphill said.
Additionally, volunteers generously donated their time to help clean the Joy and Gordon Patterson Botanical Gardens and assisted with clean-up efforts after Hurricane Milton.
Florida is home to 15 Tree Campuses. Overall, there are 411 Tree Campus recipients nationwide in higher education, k-12 and healthcare in all 50 states, the foundation reports.
Trees on campus can lower the energy cost of campus facilities by providing shade cover, reducing extreme heat, improving air quality and boosting physical health benefits for students and staff. In addition, trees improve students’ mental and cognitive health, provide an appealing aesthetic for campuses, and create shaded areas for gathering and studying.
The Arbor Day Foundation is a global nonprofit with a mission to inspire people to plant, nurture and celebrate trees. Its network of more than a million supporters and partners has helped the organization plant more than 500 million trees in forests and communities across more than 60 countries since 1972. The Tree Campus program recognizes schools, universities, and healthcare facilities that utilize trees to improve their communities.
