’Berg community all in for becoming Tree Campus for 2nd straight year

Heidelberg remains grounded in its roots as a Tree Campus. In conjunction with Arbor Day last month, HU has been named a Tree Campus Higher Education for the second consecutive year.

Tree Campus awards are presented annually by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Forestry. Tiffin Mayor Lee Wilkinson accepted Heidelberg’s award on behalf of the university at a ceremony hosted by the city of Bowling Green and the Bowling Green Tree Commission. The Tree Campus, along with the Tree City program, is sponsored by the Arbor Day Foundation.

Heidelberg received the Tree Campus award for demonstrating intent to effectively manage our campus trees, develop connectivity with the community beyond the campus to foster healthy urban forests, and engage students through service-learning opportunities.

The university is widely recognized for its lush, diverse forest of dozens of tree species. To achieve the title of Tree Campus, Heidelberg met these standards:

•    Have an active Tree Advisory Committee
•    Have a Campus Tree Management Plan
•    Host an annual Arbor Day observance
•    Implement a service-learning project related to trees

Near the end of the spring semester, Heidelberg’s Tree Advisory Committee and the Center for Survivor Empowerment collaborated to plant a Buckeye tree on campus for Arbor Day. Pictured are Maddie Brillhart and Liv Matthews, co-presidents of the Alliance for Sustainability, on the day of the tree planting.

The collaboration was the spark that led to a service project spearheaded by AFS and the Tree Advisory Committee to place educational plaques at about 20 trees around campus. The plan is to have the plaques placed sometime this summer. When they are in place, a QR code will lead people to online information about each identified species of tree.