The Arbor Day Foundation has offered up to $5,000 to Lakeland University. The money is intended as a jump-start fund to purchase and plant larger-caliper, climate-resilient tree species and planting supplies to accelerate campus tree recovery while providing immediate aesthetic and ecological benefits. The project will also establish the foundational structures needed for sustained tree health on Lakeland’s campus, which was founded in 1862.
Lakeland’s Professor of Biology and its Sustainability Officer, Paul Pickhardt, said that plantings will be strategically located in high-impact areas to improve shade, storm water management and habitat diversity. Pickardt said that this is even more impactful after the school’s 250-acre campus experienced the loss of dozens of mature ash trees due to the emerald ash borer. Pickardt said that the efforts made possible by the grant “…will move Lakeland from reactive tree replacement to proactive campus arboriculter,” and that, “It builds the partnerships, student engagement and institutional commitment necessary to achieve and sustain Tree Campus Higher Education recognition”, something Lakeland is hoping to achieve for the first time.
Comments