THE DEAN’S AWARD

“You’re not going to get shade in one spot forever,” said accounting sophomore Akayla Williams, who sat under a tree on a warm afternoon at the University. “It’s all about the scenery though.”

To promote service to the University of Houston by recognizing students for their outstanding contributions to the quality of campus life through service, leadership and spirit.

Online applications are available on the Campus Programs website at: WWW.UH.EDU/CSI/

CAMPUS-PROGRAMS/CLR/

For more information call: 832.842.6183

CRITERIA INCLUDE:

• Demonstrated significant service and/or leadership; ethusiasm

• Minimum 3.0 GPA; enrollment in at least 9 hours

• Junior or Senior classification at the University of Houston

APPLICATION DEADLINE: April 10, 2020

Staying cool in the heat can be a valuable, if fleeting reason to have trees on campus, but their value to the University goes beyond that. Replacing every tree on campus would cost the University more than $16 million, according to the Campus Tree Inventory published by the Office of Sustainability. The office makes prudent efforts to ensure trees stay a part of campus scenery, because of their aesthetic and economic benefits.

The dollar value of trees comes from several factors. Trees on campus raise the value of real estate, clean the air, reduce stormwater runoff and lower the University’s electricity bill.

Sustainability Manager Michael Mendoza said the Office of Sustainability is always working with other campus departments to ensure that trees lost to construction, or major storm events, are replaced.

“Keeping green space at the front of campus conversation, when we are talking about construction or development, is important,” Mendoza said.

The University replaces every caliper-inch, the diameter of a tree’s trunk measured six inches above the ground, of trees that had to be cut down due to construction.

Parking Garage 5 had 1,000 caliper-inches of trees lost to build it, Mendoza said. To make up for it, 250 trees will be planted elsewhere on campus.

The University is a designated Tree Campus USA institution by the nonprofit Arbor Day Foundation. To receive that designation, UH has to have a tree policy and plant at least one tree every year.

In celebration of Texas Arbor Day this November, the University will plant 200 trees around campus, with an additional 200 to be planted next spring.

Mitigating flooding

Part of the value trees bring to campus is that they mitigate flooding, Mendoza said. To combat campus flooding problems, the University is working on a stormwater management plan that will incorporate, grasses, trees and bioswales.

Bioswales are ditches alongside roads with plants in them that contain stormwater runoff.

Mendoza said while trees do catch rain on their leaves and then absorb water into their roots, they aren’t as effective as bioswales and prairie grasses.

Major flooding events strike Houston almost yearly, posing a risk to campus trees unable to weather the storms.

Campus trees mitigates nearly 15 million gallons of stormwater runoff annually, according to the Campus Tree Inventory. Almost 80 percent of that is thanks to oak trees, which is the most common type of tree across campus.

“We tend to be losing trees at a faster rate than we have historically,” Mendoza said.

The Office of Sustainability tries to replace any trees lost to storms, but the budget to replace trees is based on what has been spent in the past as more trees are being lost on campus.

That, Mendoza said, makes it difficult to find the budget to replace every tree lost to storms.

Mendoza said it’s critical for the University to continue to learn how to balance creating a natural feel and a sense of place to a campus in an urban environment.

“I hope that as the campus continues to grow, we don’t continue to lose green space and lose trees,” Mendoza said.