LEXINGTON, Ky. — Nearly two-thirds of the world’s population lives in an urban area.

With that statistic in mind, the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, Food and Environment created a new undergraduate certificate program, one which will allow students to critically examine the role of trees and green spaces in the sustainability and health of urban areas.

“This certificate brings together expertise in a lot of different fields, whether you’re interested in horticulture, landscape architecture, public health, or you just want to be a better educator,” says Ellen Crocker, Assistant Professor of Forest Health Extension at University of Kentucky (UK) and Co-Coordinator of the Urban and Community Forestry Certificate program. 

“Our goal of this certificate is to draw students from diverse majors and enhance their major coursework, providing a suite of urban and community forestry skills that they will carry forward as they move into their professional careers.”

According to the UK student manual, the certificate will contain nine hours of elective credits in addition to introductory and capstone courses. The course will consist of an introduction to urban and community forestry including modules such as trees and tree health; green infrastructure; planning and design; environmental education; and trees, human health and wellness. The course is for sophomores and above, with approval from an instructor.

“Sixty-three percent of Americans reside in urban areas and these trees in these areas are really important for many reasons, like increasing property values, in addition to improving one’s health and well-being,” Crocker said.

Assisting Crocker in this program are Nic Williamson, program coordinator with the Urban Forest Initiative, and Chris Sass, of the UK Department of Landscape Architecture.

“One of the big pushes in urban forestry in general and with this certificate is to bring the trees out from the background,” Williamson said. “This all came together out of the need to focus on green spaces and trees in cities. Trees and green spaces affect our health, out attitude and our mental capabilities. Trees are vital and we need to take care of that resource.”

Sophie Beavin is a UK student and is a certificate graduate.

“I was drawn to urban forestry because of its unique intersection between humans and the environment,” Beavin said. “I didn’t have much experience with urban trees specifically, but I wanted to gain skills to understand the benefits of trees in our urban setting. The Urban Forestry education is so important on college campuses because trees are the gateway toward environmentalism. Trees in urban areas are all around us, yet we don’t think much about them.”

 For more information about this program go to https://ucf.ca.uky.edu or contact Ellen Crocker at e.crocker@uky.edu.