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Resilient Grounds

Recent Wins – 2025 Highlights​

F&O Grounds Services partnered with LSA to convert 15,000 sq ft of turf to a high-visibility pollinator garden outside the LSI building.

Several people are working together to plant seedlings in a mulched garden bed outside a university building. Some are kneeling in the soil to place small plants into the ground, while others stand nearby overseeing the work. Gardening supplies such as trays of seedlings, a bucket, and hand tools are placed on a stone ledge beside the group. The background shows modern campus buildings and a few pedestrians.

Refreshed Goals!

The refreshed Resilient Grounds goals expand upon U-M’s original landscape and chemical reduction goals adopted in 2011, reflecting updated data, evolving campus conditions, and lessons learned over more than a decade of implementation.

Together, these goals emphasize reducing synthetic chemical use, improving biodiversity and ecosystem health, expanding naturalized landscapes, and exploring more site-specific approaches to stormwater and land management across the Ann Arbor campus.

Refreshed Resilient Grounds Goals and Targets

Landscape chemical reduction

  • Reduce active ingredients of synthetic chemicals by 70% from the 2006 baseline by 2030. 
  • Eliminate the use of neonicotinoids and 2-4D by 2030 with the exception of treating noxious weeds, invasive plants, and pests.


Biodiversity and ecosystem health

To strengthen ecological understanding and long-term stewardship, U-M will:

  • Conduct a campus-wide inventory and gap analysis of ecosystem GIS data to reflect institutional priorities and values, aligned with an ecosystem or habitat index.
  • Complete a comprehensive ecosystem assessment, including:
  • Use assessment findings to inform conservation planning and future decision-making
  • Develop S.M.A.R.T. biodiversity goal(s) by 2027


Land use and stormwater

  • Maintain at least 75% of green space in the greater Ann Arbor campus area as naturalized and/or sustainable, aligned with future campus development.
  • Increase the resiliency of campus greenspace and infrastructure by prioritizing compact development and preserving and/or restoring habitat and ecosystem services.
  • Implement campus-as-lab projects to test stormwater management strategies and evaluate co-benefits, aligned with Campus Plan 2050 and campus sub-area plans
  • Establish more nuanced, site-specific stormwater goals by 2027, reflecting local conditions and opportunities

Engagement and stewardship

  • Increase visibility of sustainable grounds and stormwater projects across campus
  • Expand engagement with academic and research partners to support campus-as-lab opportunities
  • Increase and track institutional support for natural area stewardship, including funding, volunteer engagement, and curricular integration.

Workstream Partners 

  • F&O Grounds Services
  • Matthaei Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum
  • Athletics
  • U-M Golf Course and Radrick Golf Course
  • Recreational Sports
  • Campus planning and stormwater staff
  • Faculty from the School for Environment and Sustainability, College of Engineering, and Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning

Efforts Supporting
Resilient Grounds

Recognition

Resources

2025 Goal Background

The 2025 Huron River protection goal, established in 2011, was to reduce chemical applications to Ann Arbor campus landscapes by 40% by 2025. We’re pleased to report that through the actions of many partners, this goal was achieved in 2019 — six years ahead of schedule.
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