Beautiful Trees Are at the Heart of Campus

In 1916, the famed landscape architectural firm of Frederick Law Olmsted Sons, whose founder was the designer of New York City’s Central Park, some of the great Chicago lakefront parks, and distinguished college campuses such as Stanford and Wellesley, produced an innovative design for Denison. Beautiful trees are at the heart of that landscape and the campus has been designated as an arboretum.

Having an accredited campus arboretum is an important step in helping Denison continue its legacy of a vibrant and idyllic treescape. Through ArbNet, we are better able to promote, maintain, and develop our campus arboretum.

In recognition of its dedication to greening the collegiate landscape, Denison was designated as a ‘Tree Campus USA’. The Arbor Day Foundation awards this national recognition to campuses that promote healthy trees through a demonstrated commitment to forestry and environmental stewardship. Denison has a long history of fostering a tree-friendly environment, as evidenced by its current arboretum and by photographs of academic quad from the 1920s.

A-quad in 1928