November 7, 2013- Albany, Ga.-- Albany Technical College Environmental Horticulture students recently completed a Tree Campus USA Service Learning Project on campus.
Twelve students in the program (Matthew Evans, Evelyn Evans, Christy Lane, Verdelle Mathis, Carletha McCray, Casey Millard, Nea Permenter, Perry Reeves, Russell Timley, Allen White, Joe White, and Daniel Young) volunteered to complete a Campus Tree inventory.
The project began by students counting trees by building and variety throughout the Albany Tech campus. Data was entered into a spreadsheet for future use. The campus inventory goal has been set by the Tree Campus USA Advisory Committee in previous years and is still followed. Student volunteers have worked toward its completion annually for the past three years.
Tree Campus USA is a national program launched by the Arbor Day Foundation honoring colleges and universities and the leaders of the campus and surrounding communities for promoting healthy urban forest management and engaging the campus community in environmental stewardship. It is supported by a $750,000 grant from Toyota.
Albany Tech has been named in the Tree Campus USA since 2008 for its dedication to campus forestry management and environmental stewardship. The college met the required five core standards of tree care and community engagement in order to receive Tree Campus USA status. Those standards are establishing a campus tree advisory committee; evidence of a campus tree-care plan; verification of dedicated annual expenditures on the campus tree-care plan; involvement in an Arbor Day observance; and the institution of a service-learning project aimed at engaging the student body.
Student volunteers in the Albany Tech Environmental Horticulture program proudly display the Tree Campus USA in front of some of the live oaks on campus they helped to inventory in their service project.