Thursday, May 11, 2006

Sarasota County Urban Forestry Receives Two Tree City National Awards

The Urban Forestry Division of Public Works has received two national Tree City awards from the National Arbor Day Foundation.

Sarasota County was named a Tree City USA. This is the 15th consecutive year the county has received this award, which recognizes the county's commitment to its community forest. Sarasota was the first county in Florida to receive this award.

The county also received the distinguished Tree City USA Growth Award for demonstrating progress in its community forestry program in six areas: education and public relations; publications; literature distribution; youth education; partnerships; and engineering/forestry coordination.

The Tree City USA program is sponsored by the National Arbor Day Foundation in cooperation with the National Association of State Foresters and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service.

Recent educational outreach efforts by the Urban Forestry Division include a new Web site, www.scgov.net/forestry; teacher workshops; community presentations; and an April 28 daylong Arbor Day celebration that included a series of workshops for students at Pine View School. The division also was recognized for its street tree and neighborhood tree programs, as well as an expanded initiative for progressive street and sidewalk design with treescapes.

The Urban Forestry Division of Public Works is the steward for the urban forest, representing trees found in the wild, in parks, on beaches, in the county rights of way, medians and thoroughfares, along waterways and canopy roads. The division manages about 54,000 trees throughout the county.

For more information about the Urban Forestry Division, contact the Sarasota County Call Center at (941) 861-5000.

Congratulations to those in the Urban Forestry Division for receiving this recognition!

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