Leaving an Impact: The University Arboretum

Chuck Doughty is a Northeastern institution. In 2021, he retired from his decades-long role as director of landscaping, grounds maintenance, and waste management, and his efforts to establish a world-class arboretum at Northeastern leave a lasting legacy. To Chuck, the Northeastern University Arboretum isn’t just an impressive display of plants and trees, it’s a natural reflection of the global diversity that makes Northeastern unique.

Since this piece was filmed, Northeastern has added 163 new taxa (types) to its Boston campus. We are expanding the arboretum network to the university’s Oakland campus, which boasts more than 4,000 trees representing 115 different species, and are planning the landscape of the Roux institute in Portland, Maine, which will consist of 13 acres of managed landscape mainly focused on the state’s native flora.

Chuck still frequents Northeastern’s Boston campus to work on the arboretum.