Searcy named 2015 Tree City USA
SEARCY — Trees will soon be budding as cold weather gives way to spring, and people driving through Searcy will see firsthand why the city was named a 2015 Tree City USA.
Richard Stafford, chairman of the Searcy Tree Board, said this is the fifth year the city has received this distinction.
“It’s good in that it forces us to maintain that status by looking at trees and caring about them in our city,” he said. “It’s great when you come into the city and see the signs that say, ‘You’re entering a Tree City.’ It shows we care.”
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.
“Tree City USA communities see the impact an urban forest has in a community firsthand,” Dan Lambe, president of the Arbor Day Foundation, said in a press release. “Additionally, recognition brings residents together and creates a sense of community pride, whether it’s through volunteer engagements or public education.”
Searcy received the distinction by having Tree City USA’s four requirements: a tree board or department, a tree-care ordinance, an annual community forestry budget of at least $2 per capita and an Arbor Day observance and proclamation.
Stafford said the Searcy Tree Board just finished up a major project along West Beebe-Capps Expressway near the Main Street intersection. In fall 2014, the board started a project to replace the Bradford pear trees near the intersection with sugar maples.
“The goal was to remove those Bradford pears and come back with some native trees,” Stafford said, adding that Bradford pears have been shown to have problems with strength, longevity and producing “mutant” invasive species. Some of the Bradford pears along West Beebe-Capps Expressway had already started to split, which could have led to unsafe situations.
The board announced its plan in an Arbor Day celebration Nov. 7, 2014, and with that announcement, the board opened a tree-donation campaign to help fund the project. The first sugar maple was donated by board member Sue Ekdahl, who said she wanted the tree to be planted in honor of the Searcy Tree Board and the work it does for the city.
“By November [2015], we had a celebration because we had all the trees, and they were all planted,” Stafford said. “We worked pretty hard to get commitments early; then we worked all year to keep them up.”
Stafford said he was pleasantly surprised that the project was completed in a year, and now the board is working on maintaining that space until board members start another project.
More information about the Tree City USA program can be found at arborday.org/ TreeCityUSA.