Campus tree population growing in numbers

Volunteers William Lui (from left), Timothy Nguyen, Rebecca Walter, Vignesh Raguraman, Jakez Rolland, Adali Ramirez, Anjali Shah, Jullie Ham and Nish Patel plant trees Thursday. Photo: Lisa Sanzenbacher/Office of Sustainability

Shovels in hand, volunteers from the Office of Sustainability and representatives from Tree Campus USA planted trees Thursday, adding to more than 5,300 growing on the east and west sides of campus.

In 2012, UIC was recognized as a Tree Campus — one of only a few hundred universities and colleges across the country to hold this title.

Administered by the Arbor Day Foundation, the Tree Campus USA program recognizes colleges and universities across the U.S. that effectively manage their campus trees and host community events to spread healthy urban forests.

“Our office can only do so much; the university is really about the students,” said Lisa Sanzenbacher, program coordinator for outreach for the Office of Sustainability.

“It’s important to do it through student life to get the message across of why sustainability is important.”

UIC has more than 100 species of trees, said Cynthia Klein-Banai, associate chancellor for sustainability. Some trees have tags to show their value and give information about the tree.

Tree Campus USA is one of many ways the Office of Sustainability works to make UIC more sustainable, Sanzenbacher said.

“I like to call it logic, not sustainability,” she said. “Of course we don’t want to cut down trees — they’re useful!

“Sustainability gets pushed to the side for a lot of folks, so we’re here to emphasize the importance.”