In fact, there has been a rigorous program underway by UH Facilities to preserve our leafy resources by tagging the legacy trees and establishing a monitoring database. Each tree sports a shiny silver tag with its ID number. See that majestic old oak next to the Roy G. Cullen Building? That’s #4791. This spunky hickory just outside the Technology Annex? Say hello to #4471. And #4530? Why, that’s the commanding pine that stands guard outside M.D. Anderson Library.

This caretaker program was launched about three years ago, but in some ways stretches back to 2008, when Hurricane Ike struck UH a mighty blow and destroyed a third of the campus’ trees followed by a drought in 2011 that exacerbated the damage. Since then, UH has been diligently working to restore and stabilize its tree population and the recent tagging system helps organize their efforts.

“We haven’t recovered to those previous (2008) levels,” said Jeff Benjamin, assistant vice president of facilities services. “It takes 20 to 30 years to replace a fully grown legacy tree. But we have been working hard to plant more trees and implement plans that ensure our urban forest is well managed. For example, UH requires construction projects to replace trees that must be removed with an equivalent caliper-inch (trunk diameter) total of new trees. A goal of the Centennial Master Plan is to restore the tree canopy cover in key public spaces to 45 percent or more.”

In case you’re counting, we currently have about 3,400 canopy (i.e. “shade”) trees on the principal campus, along with nearly 1,000 more on the adjacent UH medical school campus across from MacGregor Park. There are more than 40 species of tree, with various kinds of oaks predominating along with maples, sycamores, magnolias and pines.

“All told, we have more than 50,000 caliper inches of trees,” said University Architect Jim Taylor. “To replace those trees inch per inch, as our mitigation policy requires, would require an investment of more than $20 million at today’s cost.”

Not every tree on campus bears a distinctive silver tag. Crape myrtles, for instance, may be plentiful at UH, but they are technically not a native species and don’t contribute to the shady canopy – so they’re not included in the inventory.

Otherwise, almost all the legacy trees have now been tagged with the silver “badge of honor,” a symbol of the high regard in which the University holds them and a tangible way of declaring, “You count!”