By Jennifer Baxter

Talk of the environment has taken over campus this week through plant swapping, ceremonial planting and reflection of the nearly lost environmental gem, Guilford Woods. Read about it in this week’s newsletter! 

UMD celebrates Arbor Day early with a ceremonial tree planting

By Kendrick Brown

The University of Maryland’s Arboretum and Botanical Garden kept tradition alive, hosting a ceremonial tree planting event on April 8. 

UMD first acknowledged Armor Day in 1905 when it was known as the Maryland Agricultural College. Now more than 100 years later, the acknowledgement still stands. This particular event has been hosted since 2008, when the campus was acknowledged as an arboretum as part of its continual effort to protect the campus landscape and the environment.

In the years since 2008, the Arbor Day Foundation, Bee Campus by the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation and High Flyer Bird Campus by Bird City Maryland has designated the campus a Tree Campus.

During this ceremony, a black gum tree was planted to replace the previous tree of the same species. Black gum trees are a key teaching specimen for plant science classes, according to UMD Arboretum and Botanical Garden Outreach Coordinator Meg Smolinski.

“Our campus landscape is a living laboratory for many of our plant science classes, but also for other classes as well. I’ve seen music classes utilizing our land, landscape, art, dance, creative writing and literature,” Smolinski said.

Director of Landscape and Special Services, Karen Petroff, hosted the ceremony and recognized the campus history with environmental protection and Arbor Day. She said that planting this tree is a part of Maryland’s Campaign to plant five million trees before 2031.

Six people were recognized for their contributions to the development of the campus’s landscape by getting to be ceremonial shovelers for the planting of the tree at the end of the ceremony.

These contributors included staff such as the Director of the Adele H. Stamp Student Union, Marsha Guenzler-Stevens, and graduate and undergraduate students that are making an effort in environmental leadership, such as Maura Martin, a junior landscape architecture major.

Petroff said that they continue to have this event each year because it is a showcase of the importance of community and giving back to it, even at the smallest of levels.

“It’s a constant reminder to people that we have to reinvest in our communities and that’s communities of people, communities of plants, communities as an institution,” Petroff said.

UMD faculty, staff learn about sustainability with new plants at propagation swap

By Alicia Colegrove

University of Maryland faculty and staff members swapped a variety of plant propagations at the UMD farmers market on April 8, including aloe vera, cacti and spider plants. 

The Department of Environmental Safety, Sustainability and Risk (ESSR) organized the event, which was intended to brighten employee’s homes and workspaces while providing educational information on sustainability. The booth was a part of the UMD Farmer’s Market, which hosts local vendors every Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Savannah Holt, ESSR’s Sustainability Outreach and & Communications Coordinator, said that the swap is a way of connecting with faculty and staff.  

“In the office of sustainability, we’ve kind of served as the connectors on campus, trying to make sure that everyone is aware of different sustainability programs,” Holt said. 

Event participants learned about ESSR initiatives like the Green Workspace, a program that partners with offices on campus to implement sustainable practices. 

Trisha Raghuram, a senior psychology major and ESSR’s ataff engagement intern, said that her goal for the swap was to be a grab-and-go style event. She said she wanted it to be a chance for employees to repurpose items instead of throwing them away. 

“People are always looking to either freshen up their office, or some people have too many plants lying around,” Raghuram said. 

Linda Dye, a public inquiry coordinator for the Department of Resident Life, said she appreciated being able to communicate with ESSR representatives for advice on taking care of her new-swapped propagation. 

“They obviously are incredibly knowledgeable about what I’m picking out,” Dye said. “They were able to answer my question about how the aloe needs to be repotted and when, and I was actually happy to learn.”

Dye is also the sustainability program coordinator for her office. She expressed how she felt about ESSR’s booth.

“Sustainability is an important thing for the University of Maryland, and I’m glad that we have the farmer’s market and these sort of plant swaps,” Dye said. 

How the UMD community saved Guilford Woods, stopped housing development plans

By Lena LaJoy   

Guilford Woods, 15 acres long and the home of around 25 tree species and a variety of wildlife narrowly avoided catastrophic destruction six years ago. Guilford Run, a small creek which flows into a nearby river and eventually the Chesapeake Bay also narrowly avoided this destruction, according to the Friends of Guilford Woods.

Alexa Bailey, a biology professor at the University of Maryland, said that in the fall of 2020, UMD along with a private developer began a development plan to tear down Guilford Woods and build graduate housing for campus and private town homes for residents. 

Bailey said that housing was needed so she was not angry about the building, but was concerned about the choice to tear down the ecosystem.

“It’s land that many students walk through to get to other places or go there to experience a forested peaceful place,” Bailey said. “The loss of local nature … would have impacted both the student community and the broader university community as well as the local community.” 

Heidi Scott, an associate clinical professor in global environmental and occupational health and senior lecturer in the English department, said UMD and the private contractor she named as Gilbane Developers, aimed to engineer Guilford Run so water would drain into underground cistern tanks where it would be stored in a facility so they could build housing. 

However, the run ended up being the main reason the development plan was unable to continue. 

“It’s really the Guilford Run going through it that’s meant that they couldn’t plunk buildings there, which is a lovely way to preserve spaces,” Scott said. “But that complacency was shattered in around 2020.” 

Scott was teaching in the Honors College at the time that the development plan was underway. Her students explored Guilford Woods for the class. 

Scott said she wrote a letter to the university’s administration objecting to the development plan and asked her students to sign her letter. 

“I invited any student who wanted to sign it to sign it and basically all of them did, it was not related to their grade,” Scott said. “It was just, are you feeling this like the rest of us are? And they were.” 

Isabel Kantell, a junior majoring in environmental science and policy with a concentration in politics and policy, said that she appreciated the peacefulness of Guilford Woods, as she previously visited it for a class. She shared frustration that the woods are not protected by the university. 

“Guilford Woods I feel is such a hidden gem, I had never really heard about it before we went and immediately … I could feel myself getting so much calmer,” Kantell said. “It was a nice break from the usual and it felt very needed.”

 In October 2021, many members of the UMD community joined together on McKeldin Mall with signs protesting the development plan, according to Scott. Soon after this protest, the university announced that the development plan was being paused. Despite the happiness of success, concern was raised due to the fact it was paused rather than cancelled. 

“Now that we’re almost five and a half years past that protest the student body is turned over … so I’m concerned that this is going to fall back off the radar of the students and the administration is going to push for it again,” Scott said.

Bailey said that if the developmental plan wasn’t paused there would have been increased downstream flooding problems, fiscal concerns regarding proper use of money and an extreme loss of biodiversity. 

Since the developmental plan was paused, Guilford Woods hasn’t been touched. Bailey and Scott hope that the development plan will be fully cancelled in the future. 

“We have trust that the current university administration doesn’t plan to build on it but there are no permanent protections at this point,” Bailey said. “Something we hope for is some kind of more permanent protection of that land.”

Featured Image: The plant propagation swap for UMD staff occurred at the Tawes Plaza farmer’s market on April 8, 2026. Photo by Paige Trendell.