GARDENS & GREENSPACES
Tree Campus Higher Education
It is time to turn over a new leaf
When we think of how trees affect our lives, we generally see them only for their physical value to our landscape. However, trees are more important than they may seem. They provide many different ecosystem services: capturing carbon dioxide and producing oxygen, managing stormwater runoff, providing a habitat for a variety of organisms, providing shade to the ground below, and more.
This year, Georgia State University’s Clarkston Campus is applying for Tree Campus Higher Education certification, a recognition given by the Arbor Day Foundation, to take a step forward in the management of over 1,000 trees on our property. By becoming Tree Campus certified, GSU is committing to improving our campus’s urban forestry maintenance and engaging our community in environmental stewardship.
As we work to increase the size and quality of our urban tree canopy, we are doing our part to mitigate the negative effects of urbanization and climate change, leaving our college a better place for future students to attend.
The Clarkston Perimeter Campus is the first of our six campuses to receive the Tree Campus Higher Education certification. Receiving this honor meant meeting five overarching standards:
- Establishing a tree advisory committee
- Creating a campus tree care plan
- Verifying dedicated annual expenditures
- Observing Arbor Day
- Creating service-learning projects to engage the student body
GSU has formed an advisory committee working on both front-end engagement and service-learning projects as well as back-end budgeting, logistics, and potential future opportunities for our community to reap as much benefit as possible from our urban forest.
In combination with seeking this certification, the Clarkston Campus is currently undergoing a repave and reforestation project on its many parking lots. The project involves removing 253 parking spaces and planting 348 new trees, while also expanding mid-row medians for trees to provide shade in the center of each parking lot. This project is estimated to be completed by the summer of 2025.
Beginning in July 2024, student interns Olivia Sanford and Daley Wittmeyer, supervised by recent graduate Sean Max, began an inventory of the trees on Georgia State University’s Clarkston Campus. Clarkston Campus student Chris Brissett joined in the fall semester to continue this work as the tree inventory progresses. This inventory involves identifying the species and measuring the diameter of all of the campus’ trees, as well as tagging them with metal ID tags and mapping them using ArcGIS Online.
The tree inventory map is intended to be used by the Facilities department as a “living map,” being updated as trees are planted, removed, and maintained to keep an accurate record of the maintenance of the trees on campus. Once the tree inventory is completed, the Facilities department will work internally and with third-party companies to keep an accurate record of all tree maintenance so that the map can be regularly updated.
Below is a current map of the trees on Georgia State’s various campuses. Our map is updated regularly as trees are planted, removed, and surveyed. Feel free to explore! If you would like to use this map for a research project, please contact [email protected].
Pursuing the Tree Campus Higher Education certification has come with several opportunities for both in-class and extracurricular learning.
In-Class Learning
The following classes have curriculum that closely relates to the trees on our campus:
- ENVS 1401/1402 Environmental Science
- GEOG 1125 Resources, Society and the Environment
- GEOG 4012 Sustainable Development: Practice and Policies
- GEOG 4020/URB 4660 Urban Environments
- GEOG 4050 Natural Environments of Georgia
Campus as a Living Laboratory
In the summer semester of 2024, several students took part in research sponsored by the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP), an organization committed to providing research opportunities for minorities in STEM. The students spent the summer collecting soil samples from around the Clarkston Campus and analyzing their pH and nutrient richness, getting quality experience in a lab environment in the process. This project is central to our repave and reforestation project, as conducting soil tests will ensure optimal planting conditions for the soon-to-be-planted trees. (For a full article on LSAMP, click here.)
Additionally, the tree inventory being conducted throughout 2024 has provided hands-on experience for the students working on that project. The tree inventory has allowed student interns to learn about Georgia’s native and invasive species, their interactions with the ecosystem, and the proper ways to care for a tree to maximize its ecosystem value. Mapping trees using ArcGIS Online has also provided valuable GIS experience outside of a classroom context, a skill that many of the students on the project plan to use in their careers.
Both of these large-scale projects on the Clarkston Campus are deeply entwined with President Brian Blake’s Four Pillars:
- Research and Innovation: The LSAMP project is extremely research-oriented, with students conducting lab work and presenting their findings.
- Student Success: While both projects could have been completed by companies, it is important that students are involved in the process to interact directly with the betterment of their community.
- College-to-Careers: Each project involves students whose main career interest would benefit from the experience they are getting. Many of the students in LSAMP are STEM majors likely to conduct more lab work in their future. Each student in the tree inventory project has an interest in working with the environment, and most are also gaining GIS skills that will directly apply to their expected career path.
- Identity and Placemaking: Both projects assist with the main reforestation project, which, when complete, will provide students with greater access to nature and benefit their experience on the campus.
Beginning in 2024, Georgia State University has hosted an annual tree planting event in February that coincides with Georgia Arbor Day. Georgia Arbor Day is a region-specific Arbor Day holiday that coincides with the optimal time to plant trees in Georgia. In 2024, we celebrated by planting nine trees at both the Clarkston Campus near the CN building and the Atlanta Campus near 75 Piedmont. In 2025, we again plan to host events at both the Clarkston and Atlanta Campuses and expand upon the celebration we had in 2024.
The Clarkston Campus Earth Club is a student organization that focuses on climate change outreach and education. They also focus on gardening and landscaping around the Clarkston campus, working with the campus’s various plants and trees. PIN
The Clarkston Campus Tree Advisory Committee comprises several Georgia State University faculty and staff members, community members, and student representatives. The terms of the faculty, staff, and community members are continuous, while the student representatives are appointed by the continuous members of the committee and serve one-year terms. The campus tree advisory committee was formed in September of 2024 and meets quarterly to provide input and improvements for future operations and engage with the Georgia State community to promote trees on campus.
The members of the Clarkston Campus Tree Advisory Committee are:
Faculty
- Deniz Ballero, Professor of Life and Earth Sciences
- Mark Graves, Assistant Professor and Interim Assoc. Chair of Life and Earth Sciences
- Jennifer Roberts, Assistant Professor, Life and Earth Sciences
- Paulos Yohannes, Associate Dean, Physical Sciences
- Marc Zayac, Associate Chair of History, Political Science & African American Studies
Staff
- Michelle Arth, Director, Admin, College Technology Services
- Mary Elizabeth Boucebci, Community-Based Learning Coordinator, Clarkston Campus
- Steven Kaczmarczyk, Facilities & Event Services Manager, Perimeter College
- Sean Max, GIS Intern, Sustainability Initiatives
- Rob Paltz, Grounds Operations Manager, Facilities Building Services
- Glenn Pfeifer, Director of Grant Development and Administration, Perimeter College
- Susan Ridley, Sr. Director of Finances, Admin, and Risk Mgmt., Accounting Services
- Jennifer Wilson, Manager, Sustainability Initiatives
Community Members
- Dave Long, Community Forester, Georgia Forestry Commission
- Lindsey Neumann, U&CF Partnership Coordinator, Georgia Forestry Commission
Students
- Olivia Sanford, B.S. Geosciences (Environmental Geosciences)
