For the second year, the Arbor Day Foundation has named Mayo Clinic in Rochester a Tree Campus Healthcare institution for its commitment to planting, nurturing and celebrating trees.

The Arbor Day Foundation is the world's largest membership nonprofit organization dedicated to planting trees. Its Tree Campus Healthcare program aims to transform community health and ultimately save lives through trees. It also recognizes healthcare institutions that affect wellness through tree planting, education and community engagement.

"Spending time in green space has been proven to better health outcomes and reduce stress for staff and caretakers," said Dan Lambe, chief executive of the Arbor Day Foundation. "We're proud of Mayo Clinic for going above and beyond to provide these benefits to their community."  

To receive recognition, Mayo Clinic met five annual standards:

• Maintaining a tree advisory committee.

• Having a facility tree care plan.

• Completing a community forestry project.

• Educating the community on the importance of trees.

• Investing in a campus tree program.

In 2023, Facilities Grounds Maintenance partnered with a local professional tree care company to conduct an inventory of campus trees. The project inventoried 2,750 trees. A tree inventory is a systematic collection of information about the trees within a defined space, in this case, downtown Rochester and Saint Marys Campus.

The inventory includes data about each tree, such as species, size, condition, location and maintenance history. The goal is to create a comprehensive database that is a valuable resource for managing and planning urban forests. The inventory helps facilities staff better understand tree species diversity on campus and the overall health of the tree population. Mayo Clinic's Geographical Information Systems team also mapped the location of each tree included in the inventory.

"We are immensely proud of the excellent work of our grounds teams in establishing and maintaining green spaces that offer comfort and healing to patients, visitors, employees, and community members," says Molly Herr, M.D., chair of the Sustainability Subcommittee for Mayo Clinic in Rochester. "Congratulations to all who help care for our campus trees and made this recognition possible."