Burlington has been named a Tree City USA for the 34th consecutive year.
“It’s a big deal,”said Ryan Gourley, superintendent of parks and forestry for the city of Burlington. “We do this by maintaining a tree board or department, having a community with a tree ordinance, spending at least $2 per capita on our urban forestry, and we celebrate Arbor Day.”
The Tree City USA award recognizes communities that have made a commitment to the management of public trees.
Burlington has around 250 different species of trees planted in city parks, green spaces, and rights-of-way, and its forestry department maintains around 10,000 trees annually.
The city is one of 74 Iowa communities honored with the Tree City USA designation this year.
Gourley said there are several tree-related events planned in the coming weeks.
First, the department will hand out spruce, oak, pine, and hickory saplings as part of Burlington’s Earth Day cleanup day on Saturday, April 22, which begins at 8 a.m. at Community Field.
“So we encourage people to grab those and plant those trees,” Gourley said.
A tree planting ceremony is planned for 9 a.m. Monday, April 25, in a green space in the 1300 and 1400 blocks of South Leebrick Street. That event is part of Alliant Energy's One Million Trees Initiative.
On Arbor Day, which is Friday, April 29th, an elementary class will participate in another tree planting ceremony at Crapo Park.
Later that day, at 5 p.m., the public is invited to attend a “Spring Tree Walk” at the park hosted by city forester Patrick Moore.
Tri States Public Radio produced this story. TSPR relies on financial support from our readers and listeners in order to provide coverage of the issues that matter to west central Illinois, southeast Iowa, and northeast Missouri. As someone who values the content created by TSPR's news department please consider making a financial contribution.
