{"id":36784,"date":"2025-03-21T19:09:58","date_gmt":"2025-03-21T23:09:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/?p=36784"},"modified":"2025-03-21T19:12:24","modified_gmt":"2025-03-21T23:12:24","slug":"students-help-make-furman-a-tree-campus-usa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/students-help-make-furman-a-tree-campus-usa\/","title":{"rendered":"Students Help Make Furman A Tree Campus USA"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Students in Furman University\u2019s Greenbelt Engaged Living Community took the final step this week in a year-long process of recertifying the university as a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arborday.org\/our-work\/tree-campus-higher-education\">Tree Campus USA<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>With shovels in hand, and help from Facilities Services, the sophomores planted six \u201cOctober Glory\u201d red maples between the Earle Student Health Center and the Dining Hall where two towering oaks were felled by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/furman-responds-to-hurricane-helene-with-collaboration\/\">Hurricane Helene<\/a> in September.<\/p>\n<p>Greenbelt students, all sophomores, live in eco-friendly cabins around Furman Lake and contribute to sustainability programs and initiatives on campus. They take a one-hour class each semester and take on a year-long group project with Joy Baker, associate director of sustainability programs in Furman\u2019s Shi Institute for Sustainability Communities.<\/p>\n<p>Joey Davis, Furman\u2019s horticulturist, noticed that Furman\u2019s Tree Campus status had lapsed after 2022. He reached out to Baker before the fall semester. \u201cGetting recertified by Tree Campus USA would make a great project for the Greenbelt community,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The students \u2013 Austin Matlock \u201928, Garrett Ritter \u201928, Logan Weil \u201928, Sydnee Bailey \u201928, Jada Hunt \u201928 and Becca Ahern \u201928 \u2013 worked with Davis to identify the best location. The task was made more challenging after Helene, which wiped out more than 500 trees.<\/p>\n<p>Being certified a Tree Campus \u201csignifies Furman\u2019s commitment to environmental stewardship and to creating and maintaining a healthy ecosystem on campus,\u201d Baker said. The campus is also certified through <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arbnet.org\/accreditation\/levels-accreditation#:~:text=Level%20I%20arboreta%20are%20generally,body%2C%20and%20an%20arboretum%20plan.\">ArbNet<\/a> as a Level 1 arboretum.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPart of the Tree Campus USA certification is having a tree care plan for campus,\u201d Baker said. \u201cThis ensures that campus trees are protected, maintained and that we plan for the future to keep campus beautiful and biodiverse.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Replacing the unhealthy, unsafe trees along the Mall, main entrance and elsewhere with young, healthy trees that will live for centuries was part of the plan.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCampus beautification, educational opportunities, and environmental benefits are also just a few reasons why certification is important,\u201d Davis said.<\/p>\n<p>Planting the maples was the last step for recertification. \u201cThanks to the Greenbelt Community we will once again be a certified Tree Campus USA,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Being a Tree Campus USA comes with a commitment to environmental stewardship and to creating and maintaining a healthy ecosystem on campus. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":389,"featured_media":36764,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2255,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-updates","category-earth-environmental-and-sustainability-sciences"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/389"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36784"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36784\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36785,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36784\/revisions\/36785"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}