LINCOLN, Neb. – For the 12th straight year, SUNY Jamestown Community College has been honored with 2020 Tree Campus Higher Education® recognition by the Arbor Day Foundation for its commitment to effective urban forest management. The campus will celebrate this achievement with a tree planting ceremony planned for April 30 at 12:15 p.m.
The Tree Campus Higher Education recognition signifies a college’s commitment to campus forest management and engaging staff and students in conservation goals. JCC became the first community college in New York to receive the designation in 2009 and has received it each year since. There are 403 campuses across the United States that have received this recognition.
To qualify, campuses must have met five standards set by the Arbor Day Foundation: 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.
“JCC is proud to hold the Tree Campus Higher Education designation by the Arbor Day Foundation,” Daniel DeMarte, JCC president, said. “The college’s tree advisory committee updated its tree-care plan and will implement a comprehensive two-year initiative to address hazard mitigation, tree removals, and improve tree maintenance.”
"Tree Campuses and their students set examples for not only their student bodies but the surrounding communities showcasing how trees create a healthier environment,” said Dan Lambe, president of the Arbor Day Foundation. “Because of JCC’s participation, air will be purer, water cleaner and students and faculty will be surrounded by the shade and beauty trees provide.”
The Arbor Day Foundation has helped campuses throughout the country plant thousands of trees, and Tree Campus Higher Education colleges and universities invested more than $51 million in campus forest management last year. This work directly supports the Arbor Day Foundation’s Time for Trees initiative — an unprecedented effort to plant 100 million trees in forests and communities and inspire 5 million tree planters by 2022. Last year, Tree Campus Higher Education schools collectively planted 39,178 trees and engaged 81,535 tree planters — helping us work toward these critical goals.
More details regarding the college’s tree planting ceremony will be released closer to the event. Learn more about Sustainability at JCC.