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WMU's Posted Tree Care Plan Was Ignored In South Campus Development

The South Campus site on Monday. The university cut down about 60 trees there over Thanksgiving break, according to the Facilities department (Photo by WMUK/Sehvilla Mann)
Sehvilla Mann
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WMUK

In planning an overhaul of the area near Stadium Drive, Western either disregarded its tree care plan or failed to meet the standards of a conservation program in which it has long participated.

“Tree Campus USA” is not just a feel-good title. Colleges and universities earn the distinction by following standards set by the Arbor Day Foundation. Western Michigan Universityhas long been a Tree Campus. But when Western clear-cut a hillside this fall, it failed to follow its own tree care plan. The school says it never officially adopted those rules, but that raises questions about Western’s place in the Tree Campus program.

At Western’s sloping south campus on Monday, WMU staff arborist Jesse Teunissen picked his way across the rutted ground. A month ago this was a wooded lawn. Teunissen described the species that grew there, trees like pin oaks and sycamore maples.

“This American beech was the only American beech we have in a landscaped area on campus too, and teachers used this tree extensively, professors, for student projects and teaching,” he said, referring to a list from a spreadsheet.

“Here we go, another one, largest specimen on campus. Nikko fir, which is a Japanese fir tree,” he noted.

On Monday the only sign of the trees were the mulch-filled craters where someone ground out the stumps. Despite protests from students, faculty and staff, Western cut down about 60 trees over the Thanksgiving break (by the Facilities department's count) on the site where it intends to build new student housing.

The university assured the community that it would plant new trees to replace the ones it cut down, but Teunissen says it’s not that simple.

“They talk about a two-to-one ratio, that isn’t even close to the benefit that they lost by cutting these big mature trees down,” he said, explaining that saplings don’t provide much shade, fruit and nuts for animals, habitat or carbon sequestration.

But there’s another problem with the South Campus project. A look at Western’s policies reveals that in planning it, the school either ignored its own tree care plan or failed to meet the standards of Tree Campus USA. That’s a program of the nonprofit Arbor Day Foundation for colleges and universities that are committed to tree conservation.

Western Senior Director of Operations and Facility Management Steve Gilsdorf says the university did involve members of the campus tree committee in the planning for South Campus.

“Supervisors, managers, professors that are on the tree committee were part of those discussions,” he told WMUK.

Credit Sehvilla Mann / WMUK
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WMUK
A flier outside the Bernhard Center on Monday.

But the campus tree care plan posted on the Facilities website calls for more than that. According to the "Protocol for Campus Development Projects Affecting the Landscape," Western is supposed to appoint a group to advise on the project. Western did not do that, though Gilsdorf insists that it practically did, by including some tree committee members in the discussions. But this is not the only issue with Western’s tree care plan.

“As we were looking at it, it has never been officially adopted by the university,” Gilsdorf said.

That’s a problem, because as a Tree Campus, Western is required to have a tree care plan. It’s one of the five standards the Arbor Day Foundation sets for the schools in Tree Campus USA.

Lauren Weyers is Arbor Day’s Program Coordinator. “By providing us with a tree care plan, they’re saying that they do have it and it’s been adopted,” she said.

Weyers said that would be tough to verify for each of the hundreds of Tree Campus schools. But that doesn’t mean there’s no accountability. Weyers says Tree Campus applications first go to a state coordinator, then to the Arbor Day Foundation for final review.

“We will definitely reach out to the state coordinator and get their opinion and ask them questions about it and make sure they’re aware of what was going on as well,” she said.

Weyers adds that Tree Campus certification applies to the year that just finished. So if Western reapplies, it will be seeking Tree Campus status for 2018, the year it says it had no official tree care plan, and the year that it failed to follow the terms of the document it did have.

Credit Sehvilla Mann / WMUK
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WMUK
A ground-out stump hole near the edge of the site.

Steve Gilsdorf of Facilities says Western did not realize its plan had never been adopted until the South Campus project, the one that resulted in about 60 trees being cut down. He says that’s going to change in the new year, when the Tree Campus committee reconvenes “To officially adopt the plan and work through what’s currently called the plan to refine it,” he said.

But at the South Campus site, arborist Jesse Teunissen is not optimistic that the university will do better next time. Besides the housing on South Campus, Western has announced plans for a new student center and updates for certain parts of campus.

“It’s terrifying, all the construction that’s supposed to be taking place in the next 10 years on this campus,” he said.

Teunissen says he’s so unhappy with Western’s handling of these projects that he’s handed in his notice.

The deadline for Western to reapply to Tree Campus is December 31.

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Sehvilla Mann joined WMUK’s news team in 2014 as a reporter on the local government and education beats. She covered those topics and more in eight years of reporting for the Station, before becoming news director in 2022.
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