The city of Tullahoma was recently awarded the Tree City USA designation, by The Arbor Day Foundation. Tree City USA is a program that provides communities with a four-step framework to maintain and grow their tree cover, according to the foundation’s website. The site also states that it gives cities an avenue to celebrate their work, showing residents and visitors that they’re committed to the mission of environmental change.
According to Lyle Russell, who serves as the urban forestry program manager and forester for the City of Tullahoma Parks and Recreation, this is the city’s 25th year in the program, and they are excited to receive the recognition.
“The City of Tullahoma is grateful for the recognition of our efforts to preserve our urban canopy,” Russell said. “We are also grateful for the opportunity to educate and serve our citizens about our trees. They are our most precious resource.”
This is the second time Tullahoma has received the recognition, as they received the award of Tree City USA in 2003. Russell added that the city was also honored this year with the Tree City USA Growth Award. This is the third time Tullahoma has received this recognition, with the last award coming 19 years ago in 2003. According to the foundation’s site, the award is given to participating communities who demonstrate higher levels of tree care and community engagement during the year.
Russell stated that qualifying for the award takes some work.
“To qualify, it takes some work on our part,” he said. “For example, one of the things we have to do is called I-Tree, which measures your canopy. Canopy is the area of the city that is covered by trees. You have to analyze 1,000 different data points within your boundaries. It then calculates how many of those points landed on trees or green space. For tree cover (or canopy) we landed on 39%. The last number we calculated was 37%. It went up, surprisingly, especially with all of the development going on. But that is a good thing.”
ADDING TO THE GREEN
Along with the awards, the city will also be receiving a grant to help increase the city’s green space.
“Last year we applied for the Tennessee Agriculture Enhancement Program grant,” explained Russell. “We qualified for a $10,000 matching grant. Part of the project that we are looking at is stormwater mitigation. Through that, we looked at all of our parks and places around town that we control.”
Russell explained that Johnson Lane was at the top of the list. Johnson Lane serves as a recreation area for sports.
“The area has a problem of standing water there,” said Russell. “And since trees are basically water storage tanks, we plan to put around 55 trees out there in the wetter spots. And while it will take a few years for the trees to grow, it will really help with those issues.” -GN
