NWU Takes Pride in Tree Campus USA Membership

Last year, Nebraska Wesleyan University  took initiative to become a part of Tree Campus USA, an organization led by the Arbor Day foundation. It took Grounds Manager Kathy Reynoldson a month to complete the process to have NWU become a member of Tree Campus USA, becoming only the third college in the state to do so (the two others being University of Nebraska -Lincoln and Creighton University).

The number of colleges that are members has increased this year to five with Central Community College and Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture becoming certified. Each year, members of Tree Campus USA have to go through a recertification process by meeting five standards.

One of these standards is to create a Tree Campus Advisory Committee made up of students, faculty and staff, the Physical Plant Director and the grounds manager of the college or university.

NWU's Tree Campus Advisory Committee is comprised of NWU junior, Wes Rodenburg, Faculty members, Dr. Garry Duncan and Dr. Thomas Hudson, Physical Plant Director Matt Kadavy and Grounds Manager Kathy Reynoldson.

There are over 1,000 trees on NWU's campus, and it's hard to let them go unnoticed during this time of year due to their crisp green leaves and their pink, white and purple shades of blossoms.It's important to be able to protect these beautiful trees, and that's where the standard Campus Tree Care Plan comes in. It has to do with everything from plant selections to fertilizing to protection and preservation of the trees.

The NWU grounds team also plants a tree on campus for Arbor Day and Earth Day in order to fulfill the arbor day observance standard. This year, Earth day took place April 22. The student- led Environmental Action organization, with Reynoldson's help, planted a Sunvalley Maple on the green space in front of the Weary Center.

The last standard for membership to Tree Campus USA is to put on a service learning project. "It's a learning experience to get the students involved so that they can take pride in their campus," Reynoldson said. Each year, NWU holds an Athletic work day, an event that Head football Coach Brian Keller decided to do. This on-campus event fulfills NWU's service learning project standard. "This day consists of all athletes and coaches, grounds crew and physical plant personnel. A lot of what we do is mulching, weeding and planting of all annuals grown in the greenhouse. We do anything that needs to be done to beautify our campus," Reynoldson said.

It's important to Reynoldson and the campus as a whole to be a part of Tree Campus USA because of the "National Recognition we receive and the pride that we all have in our Campus," Reynoldson said.