NCC Awarded Level I Accreditation By ArbNet

Northampton Community College’s (NCC) Pocono campus has been awarded a Level I Accreditation by The ArbNet Arboretum Accreditation Program and added to the Morton Register of Arboreta, a database of the world’s arboreta and gardens dedicated to woody plants.  

ArbNet is an interactive, collaborative, international community of arboreta. ArbNet facilitates the sharing of knowledge, experience, and other resources to help arboreta meet their institutional goals and works to raise professional standards through the ArbNet Arboretum Accreditation Program. The accreditation program is sponsored and coordinated by The Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois in cooperation with American Public Gardens Association and Botanic Gardens Conservation International. It is the only global initiative to officially recognize arboreta based on a set of standards that includes planning, governance, public access, programming and tree science, and planting and conservation. The program offers four levels of accreditation, recognizing arboreta of various degrees of development, capacity, and professionalism.  

The Pocono campus’s arboretum, spanning the entire campus, hosts over 47 species of tagged tree and shrub species. The mission of the arboretum at NCC Pocono is to promote forest diversity and provide students and visitors alike with educational and recreational opportunities centered on native Pocono species and habitats, turning the entire campus into a living outdoor learning space. 

The arboretum is accessible to the community to learn about the variety of trees on campus and to foster an understanding of the critical role the trees play on campus and in suburban ecosystems. Positioned on a hilltop, the buildings are central to a 70-acre property of thick forest, annual meadows, and old fields. 

“In this increasingly populated and urbanized world, the preservation of biodiversity - trees and otherwise - will rely more on the protection of small, geographically disconnected parcels of land. ArbNet serves as an advocate for this form of protection, a voice for sharing the importance of such work, and a conduit for linking individuals and groups dedicated to these efforts. That's why ArbNet accreditation is important to us,” says John Leiser, NCC biology professor, who was pivotal in bringing the accreditation to fruition. 

The species are tagged with common and scientific names and a QR code that links to a Google map. On the map, you can click any tree for photos and a brief description or fun facts about the tree. Leiser and research students will keep the database up-to-date, and other faculty on the campus plan to incorporate arboretum projects into their curriculum.  

“We have 40 species tagged, but there are more out there, but there’s still some areas of the property to explore,” says Leiser.