UC Davis has been named “Tree Campus USA” for the seventh year in a row by the Arbor Day Foundation! We are one of nine universities in California to receive the designation, one of two Universities of California (UCI is the other), and one of 28 in the nation to have the title since its inception in 2008.

Two staff leaders from the Arboretum and Public Garden were honored on May 14, 2015 for their outstanding achievement in furthering equal opportunity and diversity objectives within the UC Davis community. The Soaring to New Heights Awards celebrate leaders whose work epitomizes the UC Davis Principles of Community.

The UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden’s Grounds and Landscape Services team was featured in the March/April 2015 issue of Facilities Manager magazine’s “Advancing Sustainability” issue.

In April, Cary Avery, associate director, will be featured in the print and online edition of Facility Executive, a trade magazine for corporate facility executives. The article, a Q & A with Cary about his team’s operations, includes information about the accreditation and how they conserve resources while improving campus safety and aesthetics.

UC Davis has been named “Tree Campus USA” for the sixth* year in a row by the Arbor Day Foundation! The Tree Campus USA program recognizes college and university campuses that effectively manage their campus trees, develop connectivity with the community beyond campus borders to foster healthy urban forests, and strive to engage their student population utilizing service learning opportunities centered on campus, and community forestry efforts.

Despite the high winds and long-lasting storms, our campus fared the latest weather event well until about 7 pm last night (December 11, 2014) when a large stone pine came down on Surge II located west of the Silo.

No one is complaining about the rain, let’s make that clear! But, when you get as much as we have lately, without much of a break in between, it can wreak havoc on a campus the size of ours with the number of trees that we have. Luckily our Arboretum and Public Garden teams work year-round maintaining our trees and landscapes in preparation for weather events like these.

Now we have another accreditation to be proud of — for landscape management and operations on the Davis campus. The best-in-the-nation accreditation is from the Professional Grounds Management Society, which evaluated UC Davis Grounds and Landscape Services’ principles and practices for “attractive, healthy, sustainable and high quality” grounds.

Find out the answer to this question and many more when visiting the California Rock Garden–a Geology GATEway Garden. Exhibit signage and labels for all of the incredible rock specimens that were once located throughout the state of California and now reside around the UC Davis Earth and Planetary Sciences building, make visiting this GATEway garden even more enjoyable.

Early in 2014, teams from the Arboretum and Public Garden, including Grounds and Landscape Services, assembled to plant the northernmost section of the La Rue Road median with plants selected for their seasonal interest, water-wise qualities and long-term durability. When selecting the plants used for this project, Ellen Zagory, director of public horticulture, also wanted to make sure the flora blended well with surrounding landscapes.