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Tree City USA

TRee CIty USA logoFor the last 35 consecutive years, Montgomery Village has been designated a “Tree City USA” by the National Arbor Day Foundation. This distinction is bestowed through meeting various criteria aimed at urban forestry management. And one of the programs highlighted each year is the planting of new trees around the Village. The Montgomery Village Foundation Board of Directors usually gathers before their regular April business meeting, which is in close proximity to both Earth Day and Arbor Day, to install a new planting, usually in a Montgomery Village park.

What is a Tree City?

The National Arbor Day Foundation’s Tree City USA program is a national program dedicated to community forestry management for cities and towns in the United States. To become a designated Tree City, communities must apply each year and meet the four core standards of sounds urban forestry management established for the program. Each community must: maintain a tree board or department; have a community tree ordinance; spend at least $2 per capita on urban forestry; and celebrate Arbor Day.

By working with our landscaping contractor, the Montgomery Village Foundation (MVF) ensures that the first three criteria are met or exceeded each year. Additionally, each year for Arbor Day, the MVF Board of Directors, in conjunction with the Committee on the Environment, plants trees at community locations. In the recent past, Yoshino Cherry trees were planted at Whetstone and North Creek community centers and a shade tree was planted at the Apple Ridge All-Abilities Playground. In 2023, representatives from Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection, the Tree Montgomery program, D. A. Dunlevy and Montgomery Village Foundation gathered at Lake Marion Community Center to plant the 10,000th tree, an American Sycamore tree, since the program began in 2015.

For more information on the Tree City USA program, visit www.arborday.org/programs/treeCityUSA/about.cfm.