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Preserving Our Wetlands From Plastic Pollution
If you have been to UCF’s Orlando campus, chances are you have walked along the boardwalk through the Student Union Cypress Dome. You have also probably witnessed the fallout of graduation photoshoot confetti, or noticed the litter left behind by students. We all know plastic pollution is a problem, but did you know that […]
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Arboretum Park Arbor Day Burke Grant Tree Planting
Spring is in the air! In only a few minutes at the Arboretum Park the sights and sounds of Spring surround you, invoking an overwhelming feeling of joy, and hope for the future. The birds are singing and feverishly building nests, the pollinators are fluttering about and the blue flag iris planted in Whittier’s […]
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Message from the Director
One thing everyone has had to face in response to the coronavirus pandemic is transition. We’ve transitioned from face-to-face interaction to remote meetings and online interactions, transitioned from working in the office to working at home, and many people have had to face the difficult transition of losing a job or shutting down a business. […]
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Fighting Fire with Fire: How Controlled Burns Keep Us Safe
BY JENNA MARINA LEE From December through June, visitors to UCF’s main campus may occasionally see large, orange flames licking at trees and incinerating plants near recreational grounds, parking garages or student housing. The scene appears much scarier than what’s actually occurring. These months of the year are UCF’s burn season, which is overseen by […]
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Behind the scenes at the Arboretum Spooktacular 2019
By Rachel Smith This year’s Arboretum Spooktacular drew nearly 200 students on Friday night after months of preparation and a long day of setting up. Nearly 30 volunteers for the event shuffled into the Arboretum trailer Friday afternoon and started taking boxes of decorations outside. About 15 of those volunteers would become part of the […]
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Arboretum Opens New Garden With Harvest Celebration
By Rahma Hassan Students got a first look at the UCF Arboretum’s newest garden at the New Garden Kickoff event Tuesday. Over 70 students attended the event where they got to harvest plants and vegetables from the garden, tour the greenhouse and learn about what the Arboretum is doing to help with pollination on […]
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New Arboretum Master Plan Unveiled
The UCF Arboretum started as a 10-acre site in 1983 on what was then the edge of campus. Over the years several parcels were added to bring the Arboretum to its current size of 82 acres, but the original site remains the core area for the Arboretum program. It contains Arboretum facilities such as the […]
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Urban Forestry
The Urban Forestry Department at UCF was formed in 2004 with the mission of improving the campus aesthetics, mitigating hurricane storm damage, increasing tree diversity, improving ecosystem services and engaging with students through the Arboretum Program. Since 2004 the urban forestry team has grown to six individuals, five of which are certified arborists through […]
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UCF First Designated Bee Campus USA
Last year, UCF became the first university in Florida to be designated as a Bee Campus USA. Bee Campuses aim to increase communication about the importance of pollinators and what we can to enhance their habitats in our continuously urbanizing landscape. The Bee Campus program, which is operated through the internationally-renowned insect conservation organization, the […]
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Arboretum Community Farm and Garden Summer 2019
Eggplant, tomato, corn, sweet potato, peppers, melon…hungry yet?! These are just a few examples of the delicious produce grown in the Arboretum Community Farm and Garden for the summer season. Our Spring Newsletter highlighted the construction of the new garden, and now the garden is complete! Volunteers put in many hours at the end of […]
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Arboretum Director’s Message
Gardens are places where people grow plants, but gardens grow people too. University gardens in particular are committed to the growth and development of people through education, research and community involvement. In addition to helping plants and environments thrive, we help people thrive by creating beautiful, sometimes wondrous spaces, by providing opportunities for people to […]
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Real Science
The Biology Summer Field Institute isn’t a field trip into the woods. For the week of July 17, rising high school juniors and seniors become real scientists. Led by Jennifer Elliott, Assistant Director of the UCF Arboretum, students were broken up into four groups: wetlands health assessment, forest ecology, vegetation monitoring, and gopher tortoise studies. […]
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Healing Powers of Fire Cider
On Friday, July 7, the University of Central Florida Arboretum held a workshop enlightening people on the benefits of fire cider. Fire cider is a mixture of simple, natural ingredients that is fermented for at least a month to create an antibiotic drink. It can be consumed straight or added to food and drinks. The ingredients […]
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UCF Roots into Sustainability Efforts
Fifteen more trees have made their way on to the University of Central Florida campus thanks to students, alumni and community partners getting their hands dirty in honor of Arbor Day. Arbor Day is an annual holiday that aims to encourage the planting and care of trees. It was celebrated at UCF on April 19, […]
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Medicinal-Herb Workshop Series
Story by Rachel Williams, UCF Today Amanda Lindsay was shocked when a homemade disinfecting ointment cured her severely cut knuckle. After the University of Central Florida Landscape & Natural Resources employee cut her knuckle down to the bone on a razor at a friend’s house, she turned to what most people would: a bandage and […]
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UCF Hosts Fourth STEM Day
By Julia Anderson On Friday, October 28, the University of Central Florida hosted 1,200 K-12 students on campus for its bi-annual STEM Day event. Students from 33 schools across Orange, Seminole, Volusia, Hernando, Brevard and Sumter counties participated in the event coordinated by the Center for Initiatives in STEM (iSTEM). Several home school groups attended […]
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Arboretum Spooktacular
By Rachel Williams, UCF Today To celebrate the ghoulish Halloween season, the University of Central Florida Arboretum is hosting a ‘spooktacular’ event. For outdoor lovers, the UCF Arboretum on Friday will host its second-annual Spooktacular. The overnight event will feature a Trail of Horror throughout the Arboretum’s nature paths and boardwalk, an outdoor screening of […]
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A Summer of STEM
This summer, UCF hosted its STEM Summer Institute (SI) camps for Central Florida middle and high school students. The STEM Summer Institute (SI) offers a mix of activities designed to maximize learning through hands-on, individualized instruction in an effort to provide science, technology, and math related summer opportunities to students. The SI currently offers camps in […]
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Arboretum Goes Pokémon
If you’ve walked around UCF campus recently you probably have noticed students glued to their phones playing the popular game, Pokémon GO. The UCF campus is full of ‘trainers’ catching Pokémon and visiting ‘Poke Stops’ spread throughout campus. One Poke Stop in particular hopes to lure UCF students in for a special event. The UCF […]
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A Wild Summer for Biology Research Team
Alicia Huber, graduate student in the UCF Biology Department, has been working with a team of UCF students this summer at the Disney Wilderness Preserve to investigate its soil’s carbon storage. “It is well known that wetland ecosystems generally function as carbon sinks—their soils especially often store significant amounts of carbon,” explained Huber. “Although we […]
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UCF Arboretum Welcomes New Explorers
Story by Gene Kruckemyer, UCF Today The UCF Arboretum has more helping hands thanks to a new initiative embraced by UCF’s Creative School for Children. The Creative School was recently named a certified Nature Explore Classroom by the national Nature Explore program, an initiative that recognizes schools and other organizations that make a commitment to use […]
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UCF Alumna Puts Conservation into Practice
UCF Biology alumna and former UCF Arboretum employee, Tina Richards, ’06, ’13, embraced her passion for the environment at UCF. From her instrumental role in the growth of the UCF Arboretum to becoming a full-time biologist, Richard’s path to success can be traced back to her time spent at UCF. In 2006, Richards received her […]
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Political Science Alumna Finds Passion in the People
With four UCF degrees and one on the way, UCF Political Science alumna, Anna Eskamani, ’12, ’15, has long time found a home at UCF. After graduating in 2012 with two bachelor degrees in Political Science and Interdisciplinary Studies, Eskamani went on to earn two master’s degrees in both Public Administration and Nonprofit Management from […]
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UCF Arboretum Coordinator Exemplifies Sustainability
Jennifer Elliot, coordinator of the UCF Arboretum, was featured as June’s faculty spotlight by the UCF Sustainability Initiatives. As an advocate for sustainability at UCF through her work at the arboretum, Elliot shares the same goal with UCF Sustainability Initiatives of pursuing environmental, economic and social sustainability. Q: What does Sustainability mean to you? A: […]
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STEM Day at UCF
On Friday, April 8, more than one thousand students from the Central Florida area spilled on to UCF campus for STEM day. STEM day is a bi-annual outreach event for K-12 students interested in learning more about the study of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The day featured a wide variety of activities focused on STEM […]
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Arbor Day Continues at UCF Arboretum
Story by Mark Schlueb, UCF Today Thirty students from Oak Ridge High School – a Title I school that serves an economically disadvantaged population – visited the UCF Arboretum on Friday, April 8 to learn about the value of urban trees and conservation. Representatives of the university’s Arboretum and Department of Landscape and Natural Resources […]
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New UCF Greenhouse Takes Root
Story by Jonathan Gabriel, UCF Today The UCF Arboretum celebrated the completion of a new campus greenhouse that will support UCF’s educational and research efforts. UCF faculty, staff and students gathered at the new greenhouse for a ribbon cutting ceremony and reception on Friday, March 25. Dr. Michael Johnson, Dean of the UCF College of […]
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UCF STEM Day Inspires Thousands
The Center for Initiatives in STEM (iSTEM) Office hosted over 1,300 students in grades K-12 for UCF’s bi-annual STEM Day on Friday, November 6th. STEM Day was a free outreach event for K-12 students interested in learning more about the study of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The day featured a wide variety of activities focused on STEM disciplines, […]
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Helping Healthy Knights
The UCF Arboretum not only provides educational opportunities for students and the community, but they also partner with the Knights Pantry. The Knights Pantry offers food for free on campus. Obtainable through the space are canned goods, toiletries, and clothing. The shelves are filled up through donations made directly to the pantry or to boxes around campus. The […]
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RAMP Up Your Research
The UCF Arboretum is partnering with the UCF Research and Mentoring Program (RAMP) to provide a paid ecological research opportunity in Fall 2014. The RAMP program offers students an opportunity to participate in research projects guided by faculty and to benefit from faculty mentoring. Students will also participate in a variety of workshops that were […]