By Sara Hinds
It’s not easy keeping campus green. But a three-year grant significantly boosts Doane’s grounds and landscape crew’s efforts to maintain the 300-acre accredited arboretum that is the Crete campus.
Doane was one of 11 recipients of PlantNebraska (formerly the Nebraska Statewide Arboretum) grants announced at the end of 2025. The university received $142,000 to use toward tree removal, maintenance and planting through 2028. Sarah Zulkoski, director of grants and foundation relations, was instrumental in preparing the grant. The grant was part of $10 million in grant funds awarded to the then Nebraska Statewide Arboretum in 2024 by the USDA Forest Service Urban and Community Forestry program.
Brandon Rieschick, manager of grounds and fleet services at Doane, and his team have hit the campus grounds running, digging and planting.
As of April 2026 they’ve removed 32 trees across campus. These trees were identified in the grant proposal as dead or potentially dangerous. While the grant requires one tree to be planted for every tree removed, Doane plans to exceed the 1:1 ratio by removing around 50 and planting almost 300 in three years.
“With all the construction that we’ve had, we’ve lost a lot of trees,” Rieschick said. “Our big focus is going to be up north around Brodie [Hall] where we lost a lot of the woodlands up there.”
Rieschick said they’ll plant a variety of trees that fall within the grant’s parameters — no to experimental/hybrid or ornamental trees, yes to species that will mature 25+ feet in height.
“They want tried and true trees that are hardy to this area,” Rieschick said.
Think oaks, maples and catalpas and other trees that provide full shade. The grant money will allow Doane to buy larger, more mature trees — an otherwise rare splurge.
“When you buy a tree, you’re basically buying time,” Rieschick said.
The cheaper the tree, the younger and smaller it is. He’s been cultivating a nursery of his own on the eastern side of campus off Iris street, buying saplings every year for 25 cents from Nebraska’s Natural Resources District. Once they reach a certain height, “we’ll pluck them out with a tree spade and replant those around campus.”
“We're basically doing this for the next generation to enjoy,” Rieschick said of this process. “I won't be around long enough to see these trees reach 30 feet.”
With the grant money, Rieschick will see the fruits — and shade — of his and his team’s labor. The plan is to plant big specimens in Cassel Theatre to provide shade for future commencement ceremonies.
Money is also earmarked to update arboretum entrance signage, prune existing trees and maintain newly planted trees. (Watering a couple hundred trees will almost become a full-time job for someone!)
Historically, the grounds and landscape team has had to operate from a strict, reactionary point of view when it comes to tree maintenance. Now, trees deemed as potential problems can be taken care of before they actually become one. The grant is like a breath of fresh air for the team — an campus as a whole.
