Calvin Landscape Supervisor Gets Certified

February 15, 2006 == MEDIA ADVISORY

He's not a tree hugger. But he does love what trees bring to a community. And
now he's a newly minted certified arborist.

He is Calvin landscape supervisor Robert Speelman. His community is the
400-acre Calvin campus, home to 4,200 students and another 700 or so faculty
and staff members. And his recent certification, which included an exam
administered by the local chapter of the International Society of
Arboriculture, is a testament, Speelman says, not to him, but to Calvin.

"I worked for the arborist certification mainly because I enjoy working with
trees and learning about them," he says. "The ISA certification is a formal way
to show my knowledge and concern for the trees on Calvin's campus. To know tree
care throughly is a natural part of my job here. Our trees really do add a
sense of stability and permanence to the campus. High quality tree service
workers work for this certification, but not many grounds department
supervisors have it."

Speelman (who lives in Grand Rapids on a street called Forrester!) notes that
there are about 4,000 planted trees on Calvin's campus alone. He estimates that
there are perhaps over 10,000 or more additional trees in "natural" areas,
areas that have been left untouched since Calvin purchased the Knollcrest
Campus a half century ago.

"Yes," he says with a chuckle, "I do know the names of every tree, shrub and
perennial on campus - all of the landscape plants. I'm still working on
learning all the native plant names."

Trees, he says, are both part of Calvin's heritage and a legacy for the
future. In the last dozen years or so Speelman has planted almost 1,000 trees
on campus.

"To think of some of those trees being around 50 or 100 years from now is
exciting to me," he says.

Speelman says he enjoys being creative at Calvin with "the very stuff of God's
hands," trees, rocks, soil and flowers.

And, he adds, "working with the summer student grounds crew is also a great
part of my job."

For more on this story, including a pic of Speelman, see
http://www.calvin.edu/news/releases/2005_06/speelman.htm
 
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Received on Wed Feb 15 12:58:18 2006