Ready to branch out and get to know your leafy companions on campus?
The newly launched Campus Tree Tours provides the Wolfpack community an easy way to rediscover familiar greenery at NC State. Originally designed for online dendrology students to experience trees in person during the pandemic, the Campus Tree Tours web application is now accessible to anyone with a smartphone.
The Campus Tree Tours initiative is rooted in connecting campus to the environment, starting with its origin. Four Campus As A Classroom student interns from Forestry and Environmental Resources researched and crafted the web content for the tours while a Geospatial Information Science and Technology graduate student coded the application.
With support from the NC State Sustainability Fund, users can now enjoy those efforts while learning more about NC State’s trees via four walking tours:
- Indigenous People’s Stories: Recognize the history and impact of Indigenous peoples and discover the stories and knowledge of the original stewards of this land.
- Tree Ecosystem Services: Discover the role trees play in urban environments to mitigate climate change.
- Wildlife Use of Trees: Cultivate an appreciation for the complex relationships between trees, animals and insects.
- Trees Across Time: Leaf through history on this walking tour of historical campus trees.
To access Campus Tree Tours, users should visit go.ncsu.edu/treetours on their phone. Instructions on how to use the application can be found in the ‘Read Me First’ header. Start a tour by clicking ‘Tour Selection’ in the header. Users are encouraged to save the Campus Tree Tours page to their phone by adding it to their home screen, favorites files or as a bookmark.
The NC State campus community is invited to learn more about the Campus Tree Tours during Arbor Day, scheduled for Friday, March 22 at Wolf Plaza, 11:00 am. The Campus As A Classroom interns will lead guided tours of their tree tours and help users access the mobile app.