A William Woods University student and her father will receive the 2012 Missouri Arbor Award for Excellence for their tree restoration work on the WWU campus.
William J. Spradley and his daughter Kelcie will receive the statewide award March 7 at a luncheon in Blue Springs, Mo., during the Missouri Community Forestry Council's annual conference. They were nominated by the university for their efforts in "Re-treeing the Woods."
A WWU senior, Kelcie and her father have been working on improving WWU campus trees for the last four years.
"We have so many extravagant, beautiful trees on our campus," Kelcie said, "and our campus needs to know how important they are to our environment and community."
Kelcie's father is the owner of Trees, Forests and Landscapes, Inc. in Kirkwood. The father-daughter team provided the push WWU needed to become recognized as a Tree Campus USA University.
A few years ago WWU was hit by two severe ice storms that damaged many of the stately trees that had made the university's nickname, "The Woods," so appropriate.
At the same time, the university administration, faculty and staff had identified campus beautification as one of the precepts included in campus procedures and tenets identified as "The Woods Way."
While she was a freshman in January of 2009, Kelcie and her father contacted university officials and told them of his concern for the trees on the William Woods campus. Spradley offered to donate trees to replace those lost in past ice storms and additional trees to beautify the campus.