UConn's Storrs Campus Classified As An Arboretum
STORRS, CT — The 5,000-plus trees now growing on the University of Connecticut campus have earned it a Level II Arboretum classification.
The announcement was made late last week.
The status is awarded through a national accreditation program that assesses the variety and number of trees at a site, conservation efforts, public engagement and other attributes that demonstrate “a commitment to a thriving natural environment,” school officials said.
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Earning the accreditation also “underscores UConn’s stewardship of its environmental resources and the inextricable link between the wellness of the campus and that of those who learn, work, and visit there – all of which are among the many elements emphasized in UConn’s 10-year Strategic Plan,” officials said.
To achieve Level II status, UConn had to show it has more than 100 species on campus and the school has that easily beat with more than 425 species that include maples, oaks, birches and pines.
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UConn officials also had to show that the university maintains a current and reliable inventory of the trees, has at least one person responsible for it and offers enhanced educational and public programming. Most of the trees in UConn’s “core campus” are identified and tagged with a unique number linked to a GIS database, providing information that the public can view about each tree’s species, the planting date (if known), and other details, officials said.
The plantings date back about 130 years to when horticulture professor Alfred G. Gulley started putting “ornamental trees” on UConn’s Great Lawn for education and beautification purposes. The university was known at the Connecticut Agricultural College back then.
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