Summer tree care has started with Facilities Management Services and the grounds crew shaping and planting young trees, trimming branches on old ones and removing dead trees across campus.

Fresno State is an official arboretum, a place where plants, especially trees and shrubs, are grown for exhibition and study. There are more than 3,000 trees on campus, and the grounds crew has a plan to care for all of them.

The trees are maintained for longevity and safety, said Mike Mosinski, interim assistant director of facilities services and grounds manager.

“With the number of students that we have on campus and the number of visitors, we can’t have a tree branch breaking off onto a crowd of people or onto a building,” he said.

Twenty-four trees will have to be pulled out by the end of summer — victims of drought and bug infestations. That includes the dead redbud in front of the Henry Madden Library, tulip trees at the Allergy-Free Demonstration Garden, liquidambars in parking lots and redwoods at the North Gym and in the Huggins Center play area.

“For every tree we lose, we’re trying to make the commitment to plant two more,” Mosinski said.

Trees that are part of a significant landscape feature, like the library redbud or a tree in a memorial garden, will be replaced. But water guzzlers like the tulips and redwoods will not. Instead, the grounds team has started planting young trees like Chinese Pistache that do well in the Valley to make up for the trees lost.

“Our goal is to have tree-lined sidewalks,” Mosinski said. “We’re trying to continue to create grove settings like how the quad was re-landscaped.”

The campus was hit hard by tree mortality during the drought but is now in recovery mode, Mosinski said. The dead trees make up less than 1 percent of all the trees on campus. “When you’re in a high visibility area, any tree is too many dead trees especially if it’s outside your building or if it’s a tree you always walked under,” he said.

The campus will also get a boost this fall when more than 250 large species of trees are scheduled to be planted under the Cal-Fire California Climate Investments Urban & Community Forestry Grant Program in partnership with Tree Fresno. The nonprofit is dedicated to transforming the landscape of the Valley.

Some of the new trees are expected to be planted along major streets surrounding campus like Chestnut Avenue; Shaw Avenue; Millbrook Avenue on the west side of Bulldog Stadium; and at Campus Pointe following Highway 168 to Willow Avenue and north to Bullard, around the farm.

To keep up with the facilities department or to learn about the campus arboretum, follow them on Twitter @fsfacilities [https://twitter.com/fsfacilities] and @FSArboretum. [https://twitter.com/FSArboretum]

In addition to tree trimming and removal this summer, the facilities department is working on several construction projects, including:

• ADA improvements and new trees along Barton Avenue. The street remains closed from Shaw Avenue to the Madden Library loading dock. The work is expected to be finished in mid-August.
• Aging sewer and storm drains will be replaced across campus. The project is expected to be completed by September.
• A two-year classroom modernization project in several buildings including Engineering West, Speech Arts, Social Sciences and Industrial Tech.
• New equestrian locker room for student-athletes at the Student Horse Center. The project is slated to be finished by March 2019.
• Repairing concrete, rebuilding two sets of stairs and re-caulking at Bulldog Stadium.
• Construction on the new 5,400-square-foot Ruiz Foods Executive Classrooms at the Peters Business Building. The project includes two 50-seat, state-of-the-art classrooms.
• Installation of a new cooling tower to be completed by December.