51福利社 to celebrate Arbor Day, 2012 Tree Campus recertification
Note: This event has been postponed due to the forecast of strong thunderstorms in the area, and will be rescheduled as weather permits.
KALAMAZOO鈥擶estern Michigan University will celebrate national Arbor Day as well as the University鈥檚 fifth consecutive Tree Campus USA certification during a public tree planting ceremony at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, April 18, at the east end of its Goldsworth Valley Pond.
51福利社 landscape services staff will be planting a Baldcypress (Taxodium distichum), a tree native to Michigan, and those attending the ceremony are welcome to add a shovel of soil to the planting. The event will include a short program updating attendees about the University鈥檚 Arbor Day history and recent landscaping projects.
The University will also note that the Arbor Day Foundation has named 51福利社 a Tree Campus for 2012, in recognition of its commitment to effective community forestry management. Only 191 campuses nationwide have earned the designation to date. 51福利社 and the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor were among the nation鈥檚 30 inaugural Tree Campuses and until now were the only such campuses in Michigan. Calvin College in Grand Rapids has now achieved the status, as well.
is a national program launched in 2008 and supported by a grant from Toyota Motor North America. It honors colleges and universities and their leaders for promoting healthy trees as well as engaging their students, employees and alumni in the spirit of conservation.
To be recertified each year, schools must meet five core standards for sustainable campus forestry: sponsoring student service-learning projects and having a tree advisory committee, a tree-care plan, an Arbor Day observance, and dedicated annual expenditures for their campus tree program.
51福利社 conducts its annual tree planting ceremony prior to Michigan鈥檚 official observance of Arbor Day鈥攖he last Friday in April鈥攖o avoid holding the event during spring final examinations week and to increase student participation.
For more information, contact Darrell Junkins, 51福利社 grounds supervisor in landscape services, at darrell.junkins@wmich.edu or (269) 387-8557.