One of the 48 trees on the Cleveland State campus that have been identified as a hazard to the general public, school personnel and/or property.
Cleveland State will soon begin a process to responsibly remove a number of trees from their main campus. Guy Davis, Cleveland State Director of Maintenance and Dan Hartman, City of Cleveland Urban Forester, conducted a walk through to inspect all the trees on campus. During the walk through, Hartman identified 48 trees as having one or more of the following issues:
• Dead or dying
• Beyond maturity
• Diseased
• A potential hazard to school personnel and/or property
• A potential hazard to the general public
“This is a project that we’ve been working on for several months in order to identify trees that needed to be removed,” stated Guy Davis, Cleveland State Director of Maintenance. Mr. Davis continued, “I presented the findings to Allan Gentry, Chair of the Sustainability Committee and Robert Brewer, Cleveland State Associate Professor of Biology and member of Tree Campus USA, with a plan to remove the trees. After reviewing the findings, Allan and Robert approved the plan.”
The Cleveland State Sustainability Committee was formed several years ago with the mission to review the Cleveland State campus and reduce the carbon footprint. The committee has been instrumental in establishing a recycling program, installing more energy efficient lighting throughout the campus, creating a plant exchange, and host of the annual Cleveland State, It’s All About the Green event. For more information about the work of the Cleveland State Sustainability committee go to www.clevelandstatecc.edu/green/its-all-about-the-green.
Mr. Brewer has been a leading figure at Cleveland State in the effort to obtain and maintain the Tree Campus USA designation. Presented to Cleveland State in 2012, Cleveland State is one of only 6 colleges awarded this designation in Tennessee. 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.
• Strive to engage their student population utilizing serve-learning opportunities centered on campus, and community, forestry efforts.
The majority of trees marked for removal are pine trees with only a handful being hardwoods. None of the trees being removed are part of the Tree Campus USA program. Dr. Bill Seymour, Cleveland State President commented, “Cleveland State is an environmentally conscious college and committed to the concept of lowering our carbon footprint; however, when faced with a decision to ensure the safety of our employees and students, we will always lean towards safety to life and property. Although we dislike the idea of removing these trees, we feel this is the correct decision to make.”One of the 48 trees on the Cleveland State campus that have been identified as a hazard to the general public, school personnel and/or property.