The landscape services department at the University of Missouri-Rolla will receive national recognition for campus beauty and excellence in grounds maintenance at the 2004 Professional Grounds Management Society (PGMS) Green Star Awards ceremony to be held in Charlotte, N.C., in November.

UMR will receive a Grand Award in the university and college grounds category. The Grand Award is the highest honor awarded by the PGMS. Melissa Keeney of St. James, Mo., UMR landscape designer, will accept the award.

Campuses vying for the Green Star Awards are judged on the beauty of their campus, their maintenance system and any improvements that have been made, special projects, and challenges faced in maintaining difficult areas. Entrants were required to submit detailed documentation, including color slides and photographs of different aspects of the university landscaping and a detailed description of the site.

Landscape services designs, installs and maintains all of the landscaping on the 280-acre UMR campus, including lawns, athletic fields, ornamental beds and planters, and trees. The staff plants and maintains grasses, annual and perennial plants, ornamental shrubs, trees and a variety of deciduous plants and evergreens. In addition to traditional grounds maintenance, landscape services keeps high-traffic areas and sidewalks free of trash.

PGMS is an individual membership organization of grounds professionals established in 1911 to advance the grounds management profession through education and professional development.