Because of its commitment to sustainability and environmental conservation, Cornell was recently recognized as a Tree Campus U.S.A. for 2009; the first time an Ivy League institution has received such a title.

What first started as a research effort to collect an accurate account of all the trees at Cornell’s campus may turn out to be useful in the University’s plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.

Over the summer, a tree inventory project was conducted by Fred Cowett, a Ph.D. student in horticulture, and Chris Gruber, a third-year graduate student in landscape architecture. In the course of two months, the project identified 7,205 trees, ranging across 225 species, throughout Cornell’s campus.

The Cornell Plantations is offering a $250 reward for information leading to a conviction of anybody involved in the destruction of a Bosnian pine tree valued at $3,800. According to a press release, a plantations staff member of the reported that the tree, located in the Watkins Pinetum area of the F.R. Newman Arboretum, had been cut down.

It appears that the perpetrators used a hatchet or an ax to cut the tree down and then dragged it to the edge of the road, where it was found. The incident took place sometime between Nov. 20 and the following morning.

Plantations health care coordinator Donna Levy explained that each year the University takes actions to prevent people from taking trees from the plantations to use as Christmas trees.