Tree City USA honor official in Farragut
The honor was made official Thursday, April 11, during a Farragut Board of Mayor and Aldermen meeting
“We waited a long time for this,” Town Community Development director Mark Shipley said. “We worked hard and finally in February, a couple months ago, the Town of Farragut was awarded Tree City designation by the Arbor Day Foundation.” He added the Town is one of 3,600 nationwide to receive that designation.
As part of ADF’s Arbor Day observance, Mayor Ron Williams accepted a plaque from Tennessee Urban & Community Forestry Program coordinator Ashley Kite-Rowland of Nashville during the meeting after reading a proclamation declaring April 11 as “Arbor Day in the Town of Farragut.”
“On behalf of the Tennessee Department of Agriculture and Division of Forestry, it is extremely an honor to be with you today to celebrate your first Arbor Day,” Kite-Rowland said.
From the proclamation, Williams read: “Whereas, in 1872, the Nebraska Board of Agriculture established a special day to be set aside for the planting of trees, and this holiday, called Arbor Day, was first observed with the planting of more than a million trees in Nebraska, and whereas Arbor Day is now observed throughout the nation and the world. …
“Trees can be a solution to combating climate change by reducing the erosion of our precious topsoil by wind and water, cutting heating and cooling costs, moderating the temperature, cleaning the air, producing life-giving oxygen and providing habitat for wild,” he concluded.
Before the meeting, Town staff planted an alba white oak in front of Farragut Community Center “to represent the Town’s initial year of being a Tree City USA,” the mayor read.
