Trees

The university recognizes trees as an essential asset for our campus and the community.

They provide habitat for diverse species, sequester carbon from the atmosphere, and have been shown to affect human behavior positively.

F&S is responsible for oversight of campus trees, with guidance from the Campus Tree Advisory Committee. Since 2015, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has been honored with Tree Campus Higher Education® recognition by the Arbor Day Foundation for its commitment to effective urban forest management.

The university achieved the title by maintaining a tree advisory committee, establishing a campus tree-care plan, dedicating annual stewardship for its campus tree program, performing an Arbor Day observance, and developing a student service-learning project. 

2024 Arbor Day

For Arbor Day 2024, the mayors of Champaign and Urbana, the president of Savoy, and Illinois Chancellor signed a proclamation that said, in part:

April 26, 2024 as ARBOR DAY in the Tree Cities of Urbana and Champaign and Savoy and on the Tree Campus of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and urge all our citizens to observe this day by planting trees and by participating in programs for Arbor Day.

For the 2024 Arbor Day Celebration, F&S planted a Willow Oak, Quercus phellos, near the southwest corner of Foellinger Hall. 

In 2024, the USDA Hardiness Zone Maps were updated to reflect rising temperatures. Formerly, the university was in Zone 5b. With the update, the new classification is 6a, which is 5 degrees warmer that then previous designation. With that in mind, F&S has begun planting trees that are native to the southern parts of Illinois. These trees are used to the warmer temperatures and will build resilience into our urban forest as climate continues to change. They will also add to our diversity, as they are not currently represented in our campus tree inventory. 

Other trees that F&S and the Arboretum are trialing include Cherry Bark Oaks and Swamp Chestnut Oaks.

Tree Care Plan

The university’s tree care plan clarifies the campus commitment to maintaining trees. As of the end of 2024, 18,162 campus trees have been updated to the tree inventory, found on TreeKeeper, a program used to locate and annotate all trees on campus (see Links on this page).

The programs and policies previously in place have been updated to reflect the current industry standards and procedures for the Urbana campus.