The Horticulture and Grounds Department has accepted three national honors on behalf of the University.
The University of Rochester is nationally recognized for having its own arboretum, filled with a collection of various types of trees from all over the world. The arboretum is home to 7,716 trees and 212 different species on the River Campus and at the Eastman School of Music, Memorial Art Gallery, Medical Center, and the Mt. Hope Campus, with some dating back to the University’s earliest days. The Horticulture and Grounds Department—a unit of University Facilities and Services—is responsible for the year-round care of the arboretum and recently accepted three honors that highlight the University’s commitment to maintaining and promoting healthy trees on campus.
Tree-t yourself
View a new interactive map with identifications of trees throughout the River Campus.
“It is a great honor to receive this recognition on behalf of our institution and they are the result of the Horticulture and Grounds team’s dedication to providing a beautiful campus for our University community,” says John McIntyre, manager of University Horticulture and Grounds. “We have an impressive, diverse collection of tree species on our campuses and we take great pride in caring for them because we know the natural benefits that healthy trees provide to our students, faculty, staff, and visitors, including maintaining an appealing aesthetic for campus, as well as shaded areas for studying and gathering.”
Tree Campus USA
The University has again been recognized as a Tree Campus USA Institution. Tree Campus USA is a national program of the Arbor Day Foundation, the world’s largest membership nonprofit organization dedicated to planting trees. To earn the honor this year, the University again surpassed the Tree Campus USA program’s five standards, which include maintaining a tree advisory committee, a campus tree-care plan, dedicated annual expenditures toward trees, an Arbor Day observance, and student service-learning projects.
PGMS Honor Award for Grounds Maintenance Excellence
The Professional Grounds Management Society (PGMS) has recognized the University of Rochester with an Honor Award in its Green Star Awards competition. The award is given in the Educational Institutions, University and College Grounds Mid-size Category (201–499 acres) for exceptional grounds maintenance. The Green Star Awards program brings national recognition to grounds maintained with a high degree of excellence, complementing other national landscape award programs that recognize outstanding landscape design and construction. Overall, PGMS presented 19 Honor Awards nationally.
University’s Arboretum Receives Accreditation
The University of Rochester’s arboretum has achieved Arboretum Accreditation at Level II from ArbNet, which created its Arboretum Accreditation Program to establish and share a widely recognized set of industry standards for the purpose of unifying the arboretum community. No other international program of accreditation exists that is specific to arboreta.
As part of the Morton Register of Arboreta, the University’s role in the shared purpose to plant and conserve trees is highlighted, and accreditation acknowledges the institution’s commitment to and fulfillment of professional criteria.
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