ESU Students Prepare for Arbor Day Event, Celebrate Tree Campus Honor

by Gwendolynne Larson

Emporia, KS (04/23/2019) — When Emporia State students plant trees this week, they will celebrate both Arbor Day and the university's sixth annual Tree Campus USA® recognition.

The annual Arbor Day event, which began on campus in 2012, is at the old Hornet Field north of the ESU campus near King Lake. It beings at 1 p.m. Friday, April 26. Approximately 60 student volunteers and staff from University Facilities will plant native trees to line a new trail from 18th Avenue to the Neosho River.

The university's inaugural Arbor Day event helped it earn its first Tree Campus USA® recognition for 2013. This year, ESU earned 2018 Tree Campus USA® recognition. One key to earning that recognition was a service learning project, "Kansas Tree Health and Climate Change," according to Blythe Eddy, director of student activities and community service.

The presentation in November 2018 by Kim Bomberger, Kansas District community forester for the Kansas Forest Service, shared information to help trees and their canopies withstand the changing Kansas climate.

Tree Campus USA, an Arbor Day Foundation program, is celebrating its 11th anniversary this year. The Tree Campus USA program honors colleges and universities for effective campus forest management and for engaging staff and students in conservation goals.

Emporia State University achieved the title by meeting Tree Campus USA's five standards, which include maintaining a tree advisory committee, a campus tree-care plan, dedicated annual expenditures for its campus tree program, an Arbor Day observance and student service-learning project. Currently there are 364 campuses across the United States with this recognition.

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