The Colorado State University (CSU) Campus Arboretum and Botanical Garden embodies CSU’s land-grant heritage and mission by offering an engaging learning laboratory environment for students, employees, and community visitors. They manage approximately 10,000 trees, diverse in terms of age, class, and species, distributed over three campuses (Main, South, and Foothills), comprising 2,400 acres of land. The majority of CSU’s managed urban forest is located on the Main Campus within 220 acres of irrigated landscape. The Campus Arboretum leverages the investments of our historical and diverse urban forest, the Heritage Garden, PERC Arboretum, CSU Horticulture Research Center, Annual Flower Trial Gardens, and the Perennial Garden at the University Center for the Arts. The CSU Campus Arboretum is an exceptional asset for the community, advancing individual programs and efforts around research and teaching through the overarching structure and prominence of the arboretum, while solidifying a legacy that preserves our urban forest for future generations.

The Oval elm collection dating from 1881, is preserved for the long-term benefit of university and has continuing research value in finding efficacious treatments for evolving exotic pests of elm. The Heritage Garden & Arboretum Collection is 5.5 acres and was established over thirty years ago. It has the largest collections of woody plants in the region with over 1,100 different taxa represented.