Holliston: A Tree City USA? It’s Up to Us

From The Holliston Garden Club along with Friends of Trees

The Holliston Garden Club, in conjunction with the Town, is working on a wonderful new initiative to designate Holliston as a Tree City USA.  

Tree City USA is a national program sponsored by the Arbor Day Foundation and has certain requirements that must be met.  These include a set percentage of town funds earmarked for trees as well as a designated Department to oversee trees. Also, a formal adoption of a town by-law that strengthens and enhances the planting and protection of trees and an annual observation and proclamation to celebrate Arbor Day, always the last Friday of April each year, are part of the prerequisites. 

Representatives of the Holliston Garden Club met with the Holliston Select Board in November 2022 and were pleased to receive an enthusiastic response for becoming a Tree City USA. 

The Board authorized Mr. Ahern and Town Planner Karen Sherman to draft a proposed ordinance that would govern trees on public land to be presented to the Board by the end of February 2023 for possible inclusion on the May Town Meeting Warrant and a proposed proclamation for Arbor Day 2023.

Next step – a tree by-law to be presented to the townspeople at the annual Town Meeting in May 2023. If the vote is favorable and we satisfy all the requirements, Holliston can apply to be accepted by the Arbor Day Foundation as a Tree City USA. To learn more about the Tree City USA program, click here -> https://www.arborday.org/programs/treeCityUSA/index.cfm

Many people in this community and beyond realize how vital trees are to the world’s ecology.  They are carbon sinks, removing it from the atmosphere and sequestering it in their roots, trunks, and leaves.  They reserve water, beautify our world, are home to thousands of insects and animals and supply oxygen for us to breathe.  As a small but important first step, help us by becoming advocates for Tree City USA when it is presented at the annual Town Meeting in May of this year.

Concurrently there are other tree advocates in town who have come forward to help with this and other projects and to offer additional ideas to make Holliston a tree friendly community.  Thank you.

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