Huntingdon College
News Release
February 19, 2025
For more information, contact:
Laura Brelsford | hcnews@hawks.huntingdon.edu | 334-833-4563
Huntingdon College Earns 2024 Tree Campus Recognition from Arbor Day Foundation
Montgomery, AL – (2/14/25) – The Arbor Day Foundation recognized Huntingdon College as a 2024 Tree Campus for its dedication to enhancing community well-being through tree education, investment, and community engagement.
The Arbor Day Foundation is a global nonprofit with a mission to inspire people to plant, nurture and celebrate trees. Its network of more than a million supporters and partners has helped the organization plant more than 500 million trees in forests and communities across more than 60 countries since 1972. The Tree Campus program recognizes schools, universities, and healthcare facilities that utilize trees to improve their communities.
“Trees have the power to inspire learning and improve well-being,” said Michelle Saulnier, Vice President of Programs at the Arbor Day Foundation. “By growing campus green spaces, forward-thinking higher education leaders like Huntingdon College are cultivating vibrant learning communities that also benefit the greater environment.”
Trees on campus can lower the energy cost of campus facilities by providing shade cover, reducing extreme heat, improving air quality and boosting physical health benefits for students and staff. In addition, trees improve students’ mental and cognitive health, provide an appealing aesthetic for campuses, and create shaded areas for gathering and studying.
This year Huntingdon proudly celebrates their 11th year as a Tree Campus and reaffirms their commitment to maintaining a healthy urban canopy for students as well as the surrounding community.
To earn Tree Campus recognition from the Arbor Day Foundation, colleges and universities must uphold five core standards including maintain an advisory committee, set a campus tree care plan, verify annual investment in the tree care plan, celebrate Arbor Day, and create a service-learning project aimed at engaging the student body.
The Arbor Day Foundation’s Tree Campus program is operated in partnership with the National Association of State Foresters and support from professional partner Bartlett Tree Experts. To learn more about the program or how to apply, visit arborday.org.
The Arbor Day Foundation is a global nonprofit inspiring people to plant, nurture, and celebrate trees. They foster a growing community of more than 1 million leaders, innovators, planters, and supporters united by their bold belief that a more hopeful future can be shaped through the power of trees. For more than 50 years, they’ve answered critical need with action, planting more than half a billion trees alongside their partners. And this is only the beginning. The Arbor Day Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit pursuing a future where all life flourishes through the power of trees. Learn more at arborday.org.
Huntingdon College’s Tree Campus programming is coordinated by Professor Gabrielle Ehinger, a member of the Huntingdon College faculty.
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