University of Louisiana Earns 5th Straight Tree Campus USA Status

Students at the University of Louisiana are creating an inventory of trees on campus. The information they've collected helped the University earn its fifth consecutive designation as a Tree Campus USA by the Arbor Day Foundation.

"This designation reflects our commitment to planting and maintaining trees," said Mike Hess, UL's grounds manager.

To become a Tree Campus USA, a university must establish a campus tree advisory committee, create a campus tree-care plan, verify dedicated annual expenditures on the campus tree plan, hold an Arbor Day observance, and develop a service-learning project involving students. Universities must re-apply each year to receive the designation.

Students in UL's Community Design Workshop surveyed the campus to create a database and digital map of more than 1,000 plants. The inventory includes trees and large shrubs, such as crape myrtles and camellias. Students photographed each plant, noted its common and Latin name, the dimension of the trunk and canopy and its location on campus. Each specimen is identified with a unique number. The inventory of the main campus began in 2011 and is almost complete.

Tom Sammons, director of the School of Architecture and Design, also leads the CDW. "We have about a dozen trees left to measure. They're in Cypress Lake and we just haven't been able to access that area because of construction." Cypress Lake, UL Lafayette's managed wetland, is adjacent to the Student Union, which is being expanded and renovated. Work is expected to be complete by the end of the year. The ongoing inventory will eventually include University Common, said Sammons.

About 40 students, including undergraduate and graduate students, have participated in the effort. The CDW provides expertise in urban planning and landscape design, as well as architecture, housing and preservation.

Faculty members provide expert consultation and planning services, while fifth-year architecture students earn course credit and gain practical experience by transforming planning concepts into digital drawings and models. The CDW has worked with communities and neighborhoods to complete more than 90 development plans. It has also helped create the University's Master Plan, which includes urban landscaping.

Hess said his office has an inventory from the 1980s "But of course, it's all on paper and very much out-of-date. Having a current inventory will help us better manage our trees on campus."

Louisiana.edu

This is cool, and another positive bit of National Recognition! Anyone know if the swamp is being expanded as well as the Student Union? At one time it was being discussed to enlarge the swamp. If you were facing the back of the Student Union from the swamp they were contemplating expanding some to the left. Anyone know, HelmutVII?

I love it. Anything that positive is great. Even the smallest of recognitions make a difference. To some this means something.

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Originally Posted by ulXrunner

I love it. Anything that positive is great. Even the smallest of recognitions make a difference. To some this means something.

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---UL-ex---so true like the software stuff I had posted-----I just wish we had a compilation of EVERYTHING where in recruiting, not just athletes, but all students we might reach their HOT BUTTON!!!!! SO THE NEXT TIME I SEE ONE OF THESE WEIRD HS KIDS ---the ones who go ummmmm and hug the trees I tell them about UL's tree Campus!!!! yes!!! Getting up to that 2oK enrollment!!!

This award should be the 114th straight.

Dr Stevens waited till the first UL trees he planted were almost 34 years old before he founded the Live Oak Society. Not that any of them qualified as members then since the trunk circumference of 8 feet was a minimum requirement.

But the way the campus started and never let up makes 5 years seem trivial, but I'll take it and cheer it.

Irony on the 5 year mark, E.L. Stevens founded the Live Oak Society while he was still president of UL. A job he held for 5 more years.

I am pleased that the campus is returning to its former beauty with the expanding variety of trees and bushes.

I am especially partial to the live oaks.

Although there are no Louisiana colleges on the list below, I was amazed at he beauty of some of America's colleges when I reviewed some top ones for 2014. Take a look ...

http://www.thebestcolleges.org/most-beautiful-campuses/

this is way cool. just another means of "separation" from those wannabees.