By Erica Quinones
Editor-in-Chief
Washington College’s third year certified by Tree Campus USA Higher Education brings attention back to the College’s historical and ongoing connection to the towering flora.
“Trees link us across generations, they’re witness to the trajectory of human culture,” Associate Director of Alumni Engagement and Interim Director of Sustainability and Regenerative Living Shane Brill ’03 M’11 said. “Beyond linking us to the past, they link us to the future.”
From as early as the 1920s, the College community was exploring its relationship to historic groves, using them as a bridge to the past and future.
The Campus Green’s historic elm tree stood as an entanglement of past and present for almost 70 years. Planted by Old Kent Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution to commemorate the College’s connection to its namesake, George Washington, in 1928, the sapling they sowed was rooted in the nation’s experiences.
Its history was palpable. Being a grandson of the elm in Cambridge, Ma., beneath which Washington took command of the Continental Army in 1775, it was intricately embedded in the history of the nation. But as the elm grew, it also became entangled in the legacy of the College, watching over graduating seniors on the Campus Green until it succumbed to Dutch elm disease in 1991.
While the elm’s key legacy remains on campus through this newspaper, whose title harkens back to the tree, its memory is also a reminder of the College’s ongoing connection to trees in an educational and aesthetic sense.
The College’s Tree Campus USA Higher Education certification centers that connection in the College’s ethos.
Brill said it shows how WC is becoming more environmentally conscious and positioning itself in the multidisciplinary study of the environment.
Tree Campus USA Higher Education is an Arbor Day Foundation program which provides colleges and universities with a framework for growing their community forests, achieving national recognition, and creating campuses of which students and staff can be proud, according to their website.
Certification is achieved by meeting five standards: establishing a tree advisory committee, formulating a campus tree care plan, verifying the plan’s dedicated annual expenditures, observing Arbor Day, and creating a service-learning project to engage students.
While the campus has a decades-long connection to its trees, discussions of becoming Tree Campus USA Higher Education certified did not begin until around 2019, according to Assistant Director of Educational Outreach at the Center for Environment and Society Jemima Clark.
Clark said it became clear that certification was a way to support their sustainability initiatives on campus. Beginning the road to certification, she and former Director of the Office of Sustainability Greg Farley created a tree care plan which included the creation of the Tree Advisory Committee.
That committee then established a set of goals which guide their ongoing work toward annual certification.
Two of those goals focused on planting native and fruit-bearing trees and revitalizing a seemingly forgotten connection between the College and its towering groves, the Virginia Gent Decker Arboretum.
The Arboretum — a botanical collection composed of around 700 trees — was established in 1996 and named after Virginia Decker in 1998 for her love of natural spaces, appreciation for the beauty of the Eastern Shore, and leadership in advancing the College’s education mission, according to the Arboretum’s original pamphlet.
Decker was also the partner of former member of the Board of Visitors and Governor Alonzo G. Decker, Jr. The couple were philanthropists for whom the Decker Theatre in the Daniel Z. Gibson Center for the Arts is named.
Its tree trail snakes across the main campus, dotting it with native and edible trees, as well as iconic flora like the American beeches and flowering cherries.
Clark said that it is important to note that the Arboretum is a source of funding for many of the initiatives connected to the certification.
“I don’t know if [Decker] knew what her legacy would be, but it’s really grown to be a little bit impressive. And it’s important to keep honoring her for her ability to think about the future and her foresight,” Clark said.
The modern-day Tree Advisory Committee is also trying to replace non-native trees with native species, according to Brill, such as the recently planted sugar maples outside of Daly Hall.
They turned their attention to native biomass, because it supports local ecosystems, provides more pest and disease tolerance, and require less chemicals to care for them, according to Brill and Grounds and Landscape Manager Mallory Wheatley.
Besides containing a large portion of WC’s tree collection, the Arboretum’s founding purposes of teaching, research, recreation, public education, and collections align with the goals of Tree Campus USA Higher Education, especially in its revitalized state.
While the COVID-19 pandemic created a barrier for the Arboretum’s renewal, the College’s original revitalization goals of hiring student interns, tagging trees, and creating new marketing materials are ongoing.
Much of that work is done by the Virginia Gent Decker Arboretum interns, a program which was inaugurated in 2021 with its first two students, senior Faith Waaramaa and sophomore Isabelle Leiphart at the helm.
These duties include working with the Geographic Information Systems Program to create a digital map of the campus and the trees they have tagged.
The Tree Advisory Committee’s other goals, such as increasing student and community engagement, also often intersect with the Arboretum.
The Committee celebrated an invite-only Arbor Day event in 2021 where they introduced the Arboretum and certification, and showed the new Arboretum sign created by Director of Digital Media Services Brian Palmer.
CES also contributes to this goal through their programming, such as the upcoming Maryland Backyard Buffer Program, in which the College serves as a liaison to deliver trees to Kent County and Queen Anne’s County landowners to plant on their own property.
While the College’s certification due to these initiatives is motivating because it and its publicization has garnered recognition for the campus and the people who maintain its natural spaces, according to Wheatley, the initiatives also cultivate a space to celebrate trees and all they bring to students’ educations.
“Trees are a great living example of the past and the future,” Clark said. “They have these deep, deep roots that we want our students to have, but then they’re also reaching up and they’re growing and they’re changing every day and every season.
Its tree trail snakes across the main campus, dotting it with native and edible trees, as well as iconic flora like American beeches and flowering cherries.
Clark said that it is important to note that the Arboretum is a source of funding for many of the initiatives connected to the certification.
“I don’t know if [Decker] knew what her legacy would be, but it’s really grown to be a little bit impressive. And it’s important to keep honoring her for her ability to think about the future and her foresight,” Clark said.
The modern-day Tree Advisory Committee is also trying to replace non-native trees with native species, according to Brill, such as the recently planted sugar maples outside of Daly Hall.
They turned their attention to native biomass because it supports local ecosystems, provides more pest and disease tolerance, and requires less chemicals to care for them, according to Brill and Grounds and Landscape Manager Mallory Wheatley.
Besides containing a large portion of WC’s tree collection, the Arboretum’s founding purposes of teaching, research, recreation, public education, and collections align with the goals of Tree Campus USA Higher Education, especially in its revitalized state.
While the COVID-19 pandemic created a barrier for the Arboretum’s renewal, the College’s original revitalization goals of hiring student interns, tagging trees, and creating new marketing materials are ongoing.
Much of that work is done by the Virginia Gent Decker Arboretum interns, a program which was inaugurated in 2021 with its first two students, senior Faith Waaramaa and sophomore Isabelle Leiphart, at the helm.
These duties include working with the Geographic Information Systems Program to create a digital map of the campus and the trees they have tagged.
The Tree Advisory Committee’s other goals, such as increasing student and community engagement, also often intersect with the Arboretum.
The Committee celebrated an invite-only Arbor Day event in 2021 where they introduced the Arboretum and certification, and showed the new Arboretum sign created by Director of Digital Media Services Brian Palmer.
CES also contributes to this goal through their programming, such as the upcoming Maryland Backyard Buffer Program, in which the College serves as a liaison to deliver trees to Kent County and Queen Anne’s County landowners to plant on their own property.
While the College’s certification due to these initiatives is motivating, because it and its publicization garnered recognition for the campus and the people who maintain its natural spaces, according to Wheatley, the initiatives also cultivate a space to celebrate trees and all they bring to students’ educations.
“Trees are a great living example of the past and the future,” Clark said. “They have these deep, deep roots that we want our students to have, but then they’re also reaching up and they’re growing and they’re changing every day and every season.
Photo by Kayla Thornton
Featured Photo Caption: Earlier in March, the Washington College campus was certified by Tree Campus USA Higher Education, for their commitment to tree conservation.