Penn College earns ‘Tree Campus USA’ status for fifth year
Wednesday, July 1, 2020
For the fifth consecutive year, Pennsylvania College of Technology has attained Tree Campus USA recognition by the Arbor Day Foundation for its commitment to urban forestry.
The Tree Campus USA program honors colleges and universities for effective campus forest management and for engaging staff and students in conservation goals.
“I’m fortunate from my end that I get to see daily how compassionate forestry faculty, horticulture faculty, college horticulture staff and students are about the trees on this campus,” said Justin W. Beishline, assistant dean of diesel technology and natural resources. “I’m proud of this honor because now the community can see how their hard work is recognized.”
Penn College – honored annually since 2015 – achieved the title by meeting Tree Campus USA’s five standards: maintaining a tree advisory committee, implementing a campus tree-care plan, dedicating annual expenditures for its campus tree program, holding an Arbor Day observance and conducting a student service-learning project.
A total of 402 campuses nationwide enjoy the designation, 19 of them in Pennsylvania.
The Arbor Day Foundation has helped campuses throughout the country plant thousands of trees, and Tree Campus USA colleges and universities invested more than $51 million in campus forest management last year. That directly supports the foundation’s Time for Trees initiative — an unprecedented effort to plant 100 million trees in forests and communities and inspire 5 million tree planters by 2022.
Tree Campus USA schools worked toward those goals last year, collectively planting 34,515 trees and engaging 33,432 participants.
“Tree Campuses and their students set examples for not only their student bodies but the surrounding communities, showcasing how trees create a healthier environment,” foundation President Dan Lambe said. “Because of Pennsylvania College of Technology's participation, air will be purer, water cleaner and … students and faculty will be surrounded by the shade and beauty the trees provide.”
Penn College offers associate degrees in forest technology and landscape/horticulture technology at the Schneebeli Earth Science Center, a living laboratory south of main campus. For more about the School of Engineering Technologies, call 570-327-4520.
For more about the college, a national leader in applied technology education, email the Admissions Office or call toll-free 800-367-9222.