Indiana University of Pennsylvania's Allegheny Arboretum was named to the listing of “most beautiful college arboretums” by Best College Reviews.
The Allegheny Arboretum was ranked number 10 out of 50 college arboretums. See the full list on the Best College Reviews website.
The ranking was determined in part by the North American Plant Collections Consortium.
Established in 2000, the Allegheny Arboretum encompasses the entire 374 acres of the IUP campus, including a 150-acre woodland. In 2005, the Allegheny Arboretum officially became part of the university and is overseen by the Allegheny Arboretum Board, which provides guidance in meeting the arboretum's goals and objectives.
The mission of the Allegheny Arboretum is to provide a learning environment both on and off campus that seeks to advance its global understanding of temperate forests worldwide, cultivate an aesthetic appreciation for regional flora of the Allegheny Plateau, and demonstrate practical applications of woody plant materials to modify and mitigate local environmental conditions. It is the intention of the Allegheny Arboretum Board to work with organizations to develop a public arboretum that is integrated into the Indiana community as well as a regional arboretum for western Pennsylvania. The goals of the Allegheny Arboretum have been reinforced in the 2010 University Long-Range Facilities Master Plan and the 2011 Arboretum Concept Overlay Plan.
In July 2014, the Allegheny Arboretum received a Level I Accreditation from the ArbNet Arboretum Accreditation Program and the Morton Arboretum.
The recognition means that the Allegheny Arboretum meets standards of professional practices important for arboreta and botanic gardens, and that the Allegheny Arboretum is recognized as an accredited arboretum in the Morton Register of Arboreta.