Tyler Receives National Recognition for Urban Forest

TYLER — Tyler has received the Arbor Day Foundation’s Tree City USA Growth Award for 2015. The award recognizes “higher levels of tree care” by Tree City USA communities, according to the announcement. City staffers say in the past year, the Tyler Reforestation Encouraging Ecological Stability (TREES) Committee, the Tyler Parks and Recreation Department, and Keep Tyler Beautiful have worked together to garner this award. TREES Committee Chair Ken Wheeler, Jr. says he’s pleased with the award and that it’s always good to get outside recognition.

According to a city news release, the city has been a Tree City USA designee for nearly 10 years, but this is the first year Tyler has received this award. Winning communities must meet specific criteria that highlight new programs or projects and an increase in commitment to a city’s urban forest.

Since joining the Parks and Recreation Department, Tyler’s Arborist Cody Goldman has been busy creating a new inventory of the city’s urban forest, according to the news release. He also set up a tree planting event at Douglas Elementary School securing donated trees from the Texas Tree Foundation. Students at Douglas Elementary, members of the TREES Committee, Keep Tyler Beautiful, and volunteers from the city of Tyler worked together to plant the trees and to install a new system to anchor the root balls once planted.