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Published Friday, February 17, 2012 in Close-Up

Celebrate Arbor Day today; Trident Maple to be planted at Lynch Park

From Staff Reports

closeup@newnan.com

In celebration of Arbor Day a tree planting ceremony will be held at Lynch Park at 11 this morning.

The City of Newnan will also be receiving its Tree City USA designation award, for the 22nd consecutive year, issued by the National Arbor Day Foundation. A representative from the Georgia Forestry Commission, Terry Quigley, who is the Chief Ranger for Coweta County, will present the distinguished award. This year a Trident Maple will be planted at the site.

To qualify as a Tree City USA community, a town or city must meet four standards established by The Arbor Day Foundation in cooperation with the USDA Forest Service and the National Association of State Foresters. These standards were established to ensure that every qualifying community would have a viable tree management plan and program. It is important to note that they were also designed so that no community would be excluded because of size. The standards include having: a tree board or department, a tree care ordinance, a community forestry program with an annual budget of at least $2 per capita, and an Arbor Day observance and proclamation

In addition to the Arbor Day ceremony every year, the City's Beautification Department, the Newnan Tree Commission, and Mayor Keith Brady will soon visit each of the city's six local elementary schools to meet with each of the schools' kindergarten classes to emphasize the value of trees. This is the 11th year the program has been in existence. Due to the generally colder weather in February the plantings will be scheduled for the elementary schools in late March, instead of on Arbor Day.

"Arbor Day and the kindergarten tree planting program hopefully bring the beauty and significance of trees to the public's attention. General public education and learning at such a young age about trees is beneficial to us all., The tree planting ceremonies held in various city parks and at the local elementary schools are events that we look forward to each year. The kids are quite enthusiastic, and it's a lot of fun," said Mike Furbush, the city's landscape architect and arborist.

Arbor Day is celebrated in Georgia on the third Friday of February.