Ridgeland named Tree City for 14th time
RIDGELAND – The Arbor Day Foundation recently named the city as a 2022 Tree City USA for the 14th consecutive year.
Ridgeland announced on Monday that the Arbor Day Foundation named the city a 2022 Tree City USA for honoring the commitment to effective urban forest management.
Mayor Gene F. McGee signed a proclamation on Jan. 5 to make the second Friday in February 2023 Arbor Day in the City of Ridgeland.
McGee urged all citizens to celebrate Arbor Day and support the efforts to protect trees and woodlands.
McGee said he feels the proclamation sheds a very positive light on the city of Ridgeland.
“It demonstrates that we care about the environment now and well into the future,” McGee said. “We want to be sure that our children and grandchildren have a positive and clean city to live in. We also believe that protecting our environment, with efforts made to protect our trees, is great for our quality of life and good for our economy.”
The city achieved Tree City USA recognition by meeting the program’s four requirements: maintaining a tree board or department, having a tree care ordinance, dedicating an annual community forestry budget of at least $2 per capita, and hosting an Arbor Day observance and proclamation.
The Arbor Day Foundation was created in Nebraska in 1972. It has more than one million members and has planted more than 350 million trees in neighborhoods, communities, cities, and forests throughout the world.
The day is usually observed on the last Friday in April.
The proclamation states that trees can reduce the erosion of topsoil by wind and water, cut heating and cooling costs, moderate the temperature, clean the air, produce life-giving oxygen, and provide habitat for wildlife.
It also states trees are a renewable resource giving the world paper, wood for homes, fuel for fires, and countless other wood products.
Alan Hart, director of Ridgeland Public Works, said the Arbor Day Foundation continues to be a great resource for Ridgeland.
“Their guidance and accountability standards of the Tree City USA program help us preserve and mitigate trees in Ridgeland that will have lasting impacts on generations to come,” Hart said.
The Tree City USA program is sponsored by the Arbor Day Foundation, in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service and the National Association of State Foresters.