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Northland designated a Tree Campus USA college

February 19, 2009

The Arbor Day Foundation has honored Northland College as a Tree Campus USA college for its dedication to campus forestry management and environmental stewardship. Northland College is the first college or university in Wisconsin to earn Tree Campus USA status.

“The Tree Campus USA process provided us the opportunity to further integrate campus trees into our learning,” said Mike Gardner, a program director for the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute at Northland, “and the designation will enhance our collaboration with regional Tree City USA communities.”

Tree Campus USA, a new national program launched by the Arbor Day Foundation, honors college and universities and the leaders of the campus and surrounding communities for promoting healthy urban forest management and engaging the campus community in environmental stewardship. Tree Campus USA is supported by a $750,000 grant from Toyota.

“The Tree Campus USA program will have a lasting impact at Northland College and throughout the country because it will engage students and local citizens to plant trees and create healthier communities for people to enjoy for generations to come,” said John Rosenow, chief executive of the Arbor Day Foundation. “Northland College will benefit from better tree-care practices on campus, and it will help connect the university with tree-care professionals in their community to improve the tree canopy in Ashland.”

Northland College met the required five core standards of tree care and community engagement in order to receive 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 the student body.

The Arbor Day Foundation launched Tree Campus USA in the fall of 2008 by planting trees at nine college campuses throughout the United States. More information about the Tree Campus USA program is available at www.arborday.org/TreeCampusUSA.