The Sustainability Grant Fund was created with the goal to advance sustainability at Thompson Rivers University. Grants are awarded to improve the university’s operational environmental performance, foster sustainability literacy and campus community engagement, advance applied research, and demonstrate the viability of sustainability technologies. The TRU Tree Care Project has been given the green light in the latest round of funding through TRU’s Sustainability Grant Fund (SGF).

Award winning horticulture students Kerri Fitter and Jessica Belt have been selected to carry out the duties for this project for the summer. Kerri and Jessica will be around campus adding compost and mulch to many of the trees on campus planted in the turf areas. These trees act as a living lab to departments such as Natural Resource Sciences, Geography and of course Horticulture, to name a few. This experience will enable the two students to help make the campus a healthier environment for the TRU community, as well provide summer employment.

Guidance to the students will be provided by TRU’s Cameron Lindsay (Horticulturist) and Greg Houghton (professional Arborist). The benefits of the project include controlling weed germination, protecting roots from extreme summer and winter temperatures, helping reduce soil moisture loss through evaporation, inhibiting certain plant diseases, improving soil biology and fertility, reducing the likelihood of tree damage from equipment, and giving the planting beds a uniform, well cared for look. This project is an outstanding summer employment learning opportunity for these TRU students.

The TRU Sustainability Office’s Sustainability Grant Fund has partially funded the TRU Tree Care Project.

For media enquiries or images, please contact James Gordon in the TRU Sustainability Office (250) 852-7153, jgordon@tru.ca.