Nebraska City, Neb. (Dec. 2, 2010) – The University of California, Irvine, will turn a deeper shade of green this spring thanks to the work of a group of students during a recent Tree Campus USA tree-planting event held on campus.
Nearly 100 UC Irvine students participated in the Tree Campus USA event on campus last month, planting 50 trees in Aldrich Park. UC Irvine will receive an additional $2,500 worth of trees because its students won the Text for Trees challenge. UC Irvine will receive the free trees in the spring from the Arbor Day Foundation's Tree Campus USA program, which is sponsored by Toyota.
UC Irvine students sent more texts showing photos of people planting trees during its Tree Campus USA event than the other five universities that also held an event during the fall.
UC Irvine students planted trees in Aldrich Park, a 19-acre botanical garden and arboretum that is popular with students and faculty.
Tree Campus USA tree-planting events were held at six universities to celebrate the positive impact the program is having on college campuses across the United States. The aim of the program is to honor college campuses for promoting healthy urban forest management and engaging the campus community in environmental stewardship.
There are 74 colleges and universities that earned Tree Campus USA status, including UC Irvine.
To become a Tree Campus USA college or university, a school must meet five core standards of tree care and community engagement. Those requirements are: establishing a campus tree advisory committee; providing evidence of a campus tree-care plan; having dedicated annual expenditures on the campus tree plan; observing Arbor Day; and offering service-learning projects aimed at engaging the student body.
To see photos from the Tree Campus USA fall events, go to www.arbordaynow.org.
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About the Arbor Day Foundation: The Arbor Day Foundation is a nonprofit conservation and education organization of more than 1 million members, with a mission to inspire people to plant, nurture, and celebrate trees. More information on the Foundation and its programs can be found at arborday.org.