HONOLULU (KHON2) — The University of Hawaii at Manoa was recognized for its trees by the Arbor Day Foundation with a Tree Campus USA honor.
This is distinction has been given to UH 11 times before.
The university reports it has more than 4,000 trees with 500 species from all over the world on the 320-acre site.
The first trees on the school campus were planted in 1915.
Some trees were planted to honor people or events.
There’s trees for civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and Alice Ball, the university’s first African American chemist, instructor and researcher who was also the first woman to earn a master’s degree from UH in 1915.
There are trees that were planted by former first lady Lady Bird Johnson and Japan’s future Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko.
The school was also accredited in March as an international arboretum for another five years. That makes the college one of 452 arboretums in 34 countries accredited by ArbNet.