University of Miami
OP-9: Landscape Management

The vegetated area excluded Athletic fields.

This year, we included the 15 ft. buffer around all water bodies on campus that is managed organically, as well as all gardens. We included land managed for biodiversity.

The Gifford Arboretum is a collection of important trees and plants that have been assembled for the purposes of education and research.
No chemical pesticide is used on the shrubs and trees. The mulch used in the Arboretum is locally produced from our yard clipping waste.
Less than 3% of the fruit trees receive additional synthetic fertilizer, and only during specific harsh seasons.

Any landscape located 10 ft from a body of water is under an organic management program.

Pests are populations of living organism (rodents, insects, animals or microorganism) that interfere with use of retail food service establishments and other facilities for human purposes.

Integrated Pest Management (IPM) establishes an approach to managing pests by combining physical, chemical, biological, or other procedures and tools in a way that minimizes health, environmental and economic risks.

UM Campus has adopted this Integrated Pest Management Plan for the buildings and grounds UM Campus operates/manages.

Our Tree Care Plan is part of our designation as Tree Campus USA from the Arbor Day Foundation:
The goal of the University of Miami Tree Care Plan is to establish and highlight good and sustainable landscaping practices on our main campus: 1535 Levante Ave, Coral Gables, FL 33146.
The general purpose of the plan is to guarantee that the standards of beauty, sustainability and environmental stewardship are respected and applied on our campus landscape.

Specific objectives of this plan are:
- Use of Native plants or low-maintenance plant species
- Administer environmentally sound arborist practices to enhance and maintain the campus landscape.
- Increase species diversity and tree canopy.
- Develop environmentally friendly landscape designs to conserve energy and water, reduce the urban heat island effect on campus, and promote improvements in air quality.
- Protect existing campus canopy during construction and renovation projects.

All our body of water are monitor for quality with the help of our College of Engineering classes. All body of water of the campuses are protected by a 10ft buffer of organic management of the landscape to prevent point pollution caused by synthetic fertilizer and pesticides.
All our buildings are built with sustainable rain water management design.

Our landscaping grass, leaves, clippings, pruning, branches and other plant debris are all sent to our Mulching/Composting area.
Our Mulching on site practice offset 470 Tons per year of green waste from landfills. Most of our final mulch is used to maintain the Coral Gables campus landscape.
https://greenu.miami.edu/topics/waste-diversion/yard-waste-food-waste/index.html

UM maintains a lavish vegetative canopy that allow for a massive amount of shading occurring all across campuses. All new planting obeys to the rules laid out in our Tree care plan, with native and drought resistant species. If the main goal of this best practice is to reduce the water consumption, it also has a strong impact on energy consumption linked to water management.

Our Tree Care Plan is part of our designation as Tree Campus USA from the Arbor Day Foundation:

4 - TREE CARE POLICIES
All trees, shrubs, and turf areas are maintained according to landscape management best practices. Those practices include proper and sustainable fertilization, irrigation, and pest management on campus grounds. These guidelines allow us to guarantee the esthetics as well as the health of our landscape while reducing our environmental impact on local ecosystems.
Plant Selection
As stipulated in the South Florida Water Management District's Xeriscape Plant Guide II and the Miami-Dade County Landscape Ordinance, chapter 18 A, our choice of plant species is guided by the Florida Friendly Landscaping (FFL) principles. Native and Low maintenance, drought tolerant species are always preferred. Our irrigation systems also follow FFL’s recommendations, conserving water and promoting soil integrity everywhere possible.
The “Right tree in the Right place” concept is applied in our guidelines to avoid any damage to existing and future infrastructure.
All plant material needs to be Florida No. 1 or better as specified within "Florida Grades and Standards for Nursery Plants" from the State of Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. (See Annex III)