BROOKLYN COLLEGE–For the first time in nearly four decades, the Brooklyn College community gathered to update the campus tree inventory, promoting sustainability and collecting data that could inform future environmental justice efforts.
The event took place on Oct. 4 and was hosted by the Urban Sustainability Program in collaboration with the BC Eats Garden and the campus sustainability coordinator, Stalin Espinal. It invited students, faculty, and community volunteers to help identify and map the trees on campus. But this inventory is about more than just counting trees; it’s about shifting how the campus understands and engages with its environment.
“It sounds like this abstract, boring thing, but it’s a very profound way of relating to the environment and building a relationship with this environment through trees, which are such keystone species in how our environment functions,” said Michael Menser, director of the Urban Sustainability Program. “We have maps of the original list of trees on the campus. The last time there was a full counting was 1987. So we need to do this.”
