For the fourth year in a row, the City of Wyoming has been designated a 2020 Tree City USA. The Tree Amigos, the city’s volunteer tree commission, completed the application in December 2020.
“Despite the pandemic, our amazing volunteer board was able to complete a fall tree planting that added 12 street trees in front of residents’ homes in the Godfrey Lee neighborhood and eight, new, mature trees to Oriole Park,” says board chair, Estelle Slootmaker. “We also planted six more trees at the Beverly Bryan Community Orchard at West Elementary, which is maintained by board members, Elizabeth Kreager and Molly Cartwright.”
The Tree City USA program has been greening up cities and towns across America since 1976. It is a nationwide movement that provides the framework necessary for communities to manage and expand their public trees.
More than 3,400 communities have made the commitment to becoming a Tree City USA. They have achieved Tree City USA status by meeting four core standards of sound urban forestry management: maintaining a tree board or department, having a community tree ordinance, spending at least $2 per capita on urban forestry and celebrating Arbor Day.
The City of Wyoming has a long ways to go to meet the recommended 40% tree canopy—an iTree survey puts our total canopy at 13.5%. Along with planting, maintaining the trees we already have is the best way to accomplish that goal,” Slootmaker says. “We are pleased to see that tree canopy is a priority of the new City of Wyoming masterplan.”
