This Tennessee Arbor Day more than 120 trees will be planted on campus.
The tree planting event, organized by Facilities Services’ Arboricultural Services subunit and the Office of Sustainability, will take place March 1 in Sorority Village and near Morgan Hall. Volunteers will work with sustainability staff to plant more than 15 species of trees, including black oak, eastern hemlock, red buckeye, mountain laurel, and pitch pine.
The tree planting is open to students, faculty, and staff. There will be a ceremony and lunch at noon at Morgan Hall, followed by planting through 3 p.m.
“Arbor Day provides our office with a practical opportunity to engage members of our campus who are passionate about making a positive environmental impact,” said Preston Jacobsen, sustainability manager.
Since 2015, UT has organized annual tree plantings, bringing out hundreds of volunteers across campus to plant more than 600 trees. The university, which has approximately 8,750 trees on campus, has been recognized as a Tree Campus USA by the Arbor Day Foundation.
The student environmental initiatives fee, known as the green fee, currently funds a project by UT Arborist Sam Adams that documents all of the trees on UT’s campus, with their information uploaded to the publicly accessible Tree Inventory and Community Viewer. The database includes the specific locations, species, and sizes of each tagged tree.
“Through enhanced analysis, this database helps us to understand how an urban forest positively affects carbon storage, air quality, storm water capture, and energy usage,” said Adams.
Tree care and maintenance are managed through Arboricultural Services. More information about the sustainability office and its on-campus projects can be found at environment.utk.edu.
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CONTACT:
Brian Canever (865-974-0937, bcanever@utk.edu)
Carolyn Brown (865-974-7386, cbrow200@utk.edu)