TREES

t’s the 150th anniversary of Arbor Day and a great opportunity to reflect on all the reasons why Batavia continues to be nationally recognized as a Tree City.

Batavia’s public services, environmental commission, and its citizens make maintaining our urban forest a priority. Here’s proof:

The Tree Commission

Batavia’s Tree commission is a group appointed by the mayor to serve four-year terms in the service of reviewing and informing city regulations and policies for public tree care. The group also reviews development and redevelopment plans to evaluate their impact on trees. They also coordinate annual Arbor Day festivities and complete the annual application for Tree City USA designation.

For more information, visit cityofbatavia.net/315/treecommission.

Tree City Usa Designation

Batavia has been awarded Tree City USA designation for 25 consecutive years. Sponsored by The National Arbor Day Foundation to be awarded Tree City Status, cities must maintain a tree board or department; have a community tree ordinance; spend at least $2 per capita on urban forestry and celebrate Arbor Day.

The Parkway Tree Program

The City of Batavia offers its residents the opportunity to purchase a parkway tree as part of its commitment to reforestation in Batavia. The available species are locally grown, quality trees that do well in City parkways. A variety of species are offered each year to provide a diversified parkway tree population for the community.

Requests for trees this spring will be accepted through March 24, or while supplies last. To submit a request for a tree please visit the cityofbatavia.net/ parkwaytrees for details.

Certified Arborists On Staff

The City of Batavia has four staff members who are certified arborists. These staffers took the initiative to learn about becoming arborists, attending night classes and taking a certification test on their own time.

Batavia Big Tree Program

The mission of the Batavia Big Tree Program is to find, measure and catalog the largest native trees in the City of Batavia. A Batavia Big Tree is simply…a big tree! It is the largest non-invasive tree (taking into account circumference, height, and crown spread) of a particular species within Batavia.

The Batavia Environmental Commission and the Batavia Tree Commission run the program using guidelines from the Illinois Forestry Extension, who administers the Illinois Big Tree Registry program. Volunteers with the Batavia Environmental and Tree Commissions accept nominations, measure nominated trees, manage data and promote the program and the champion trees that are discovered as part of it.

For information about the program, or to nominate a tree, visit bataviaec.org.