Arkansas Tech University has earned the Tree Campus Higher Education designation from the Arbor Day Foundation for its activities during 2022.
Tree Campus Higher Education, previously known as Tree Campus USA, is a national program created in 2008 by the Arbor Day Foundation to honor colleges and universities for effective campus forest management and for engaging staff and students in conservation goals.
Arkansas Tech has achieved the distinction eight consecutive years by meeting Tree Campus Higher Education’s five standards, which include maintaining a tree advisory committee, a campus tree-care plan, dedicated annual expenditures for its campus tree program, an Arbor Day observance and student service-learning project.
The Arbor Day Foundation is a non-profit conservation and education organization with a mission to inspire people to plant, nurture and celebrate trees.
Arkansas Tech began a tree planting program during the 2009-10 academic year. The trees are part of a long-term landscaping beautification program made possible through the generosity of Arkansas Tech alumni Robert Norman and the late Sandra Norman of Tulsa, Okla.
The Normans’ philanthropy has led to the planting and care of more than 1,500 trees on the ATU campus in Russellville.
