Brentwood Tree Board Wins State Awards of Excellence

At the regular Brentwood City Commission meeting held Monday, November 8, the Brentwood Mayor and City Commission honored and recognized the Brentwood Tree Board and welcomed the President of the Tennessee Urban Forestry Council who delivered news of state-level recognition and awards. The Tree Board and its members have had some extraordinary accomplishments over the last several years and have been specifically engaged with significant results during the pandemic.  Brentwood Mayor Rhea Little said, “the Brentwood Tree Board is comprised of a tirelessly engaged group of citizen volunteers and staff who come together to promote a better community via the City’s tree programs. We thank them all for their hard work today and every day.”

The Brentwood Tree Board is the winner of two Awards of Excellence, a program sponsored by the Tennessee Urban Forestry Council, or TUFC and the Tennessee Department of Agriculture, Division of Forestry. According to TUFC, the Awards of Excellence are presented to those for outstanding leadership, education efforts or activities that have made a significant contribution to establishing and maintaining viable community forests in Tennessee.  TUFC President Neil Letson presented the awards and said, “these are our highest honors to recognize a board or committee.  In our twenty-eight-year program, this is the first time the Brentwood Tree Board has made the list and we want to congratulate you for this honor.”

 

The Brentwood Tree Board was selected as the 2021Tree Board recipient through the Awards of Excellence program for its long list of significant progress in meeting the goals of the local urban forestry program.  Some of the highlights included in the award nomination included:

 

Recent Years’ Accomplishments:

  • Brentwood has been recognized for more than three decades as a Tree City USA
  • Established a Mayors Corner and a Liberty Garden (in recognition of 911) in the City’s parks where annual Arbor Day trees are planted
  • Maintain two state certified arboretums
  • Created a Tree Canopy Map for Brentwood with the coordination of the TN Urban Forestry representatives
  • Annual Arbor Day Celebration held
  • Approximately 3,000 free tree seedlings distributed to schools and the public
  • Coordinate annual tree-themed art, writing, and photography contests leading up to the Annual Arbor Day Celebration, in coordination with community schools and sponsors
  • Create a month-long display at the city library of winning tree-themed art and an acorn guessing contest with prize of a tree valued at $200 or greater.
  • Bring awareness to the community about the Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) to include:
    • Board Members educated and trained to become speakers for schools, HOA and others
    • Hosted an EAB educational meeting for local companies and HOA’s with Metro Nashville
    • Held an informational meeting for city residents at the city library
    • Mapping ash trees on City property including offices and parks, and through the City Parks Department established a list of trees to be proactively treated
    • Distributed EAB educational fliers in residential water bills

 

 

Specific Accomplishments during the Pandemic:

  •                 Established a virtual weeklong Arbor Day Celebration in 2021 themed: Stress Re-leaf – Go-See-a-Tree.

Highlights of the celebration included:

  • The weeklong virtual celebration kicked-off with an outdoor (drive by) give-away of 800 seedlings at the library, with livestream of the event on the City’s Facebook page.
  • Educational videos and livestreamed videos daily on social media involving education, crafts, and “Ask an Arborist”, with imbedded contests and prizes
  • The writing contest continued virtually, with a reading of the winning submission on the City’s Facebook page
  • Continued the Annual Acorn Guessing Contest with the jar of acorns visible at the library or virtually, and submittals through the City’s Facebook and Instagram pages.
  • Wrapped-up the week of livestream videos with the Annual Arbor Day Tree Dedication to a member of the community.
  • Created a committee to launch and manage the Brentwood’s Best Ash Photo and Mapping Contest.  The contest included significant prize money, which led to an engaging contest complete with a logo, T-Shirts bookmarks.  The contest was promoted via social media, online and in printed news outlets to educate the community at EAB.

 

Tree Board Chairperson, Lynn Tucker said, “throughout the pandemic, the Brentwood Tree Board used technology to its advantage and continued to meet virtually and in outdoor venues, with significant attendance of the full Board. I am very proud of this board and the major accomplishments of the past year.”

 

Letson presented the 2021 Media Award of Excellence to the Brentwood Tree Board staff person and Brentwood Community Relations Director, Deanna Lambert.  Letson said “we know our communication professionals have had an extremely difficult year managing the pandemic messages on top all the other regular communication duties. This award in the past has gone to a traditional television media entity but with the evolvement of the power of social media and the level of what Brentwood did during its virtual week, it only made sense to honor Deanna Lambert for her work.”  Mayor Little said, “none of Brentwood’s virtual weeklong Arbor Day celebration would have happened without Deanna and her leadership. For this and all she does, we say thank you and congratulate Deanna on this well-deserved recognition!”

 

The 2021 Virtual Arbor Day celebration in Brentwood included three live video segments, 14 pre-recorded videos and more than a dozen social media posts.  Topics such as how to identify an ash tree, Story-time with Ms. Pat at the Brentwood Library and one Brentwood homeowner’s story about how she battled the Emerald Ash Borer were all part of the week.  We invite you to view the educational videos on the City of Brentwood YouTube Channel.

 

Members of the Brentwood Tree Board include Dane Anderson, Brian Evans, Scot Page, Chairperson Lynn Tucker, Cindy Harrison, Patty Schultz, John O’Brien, City Commission Ken Travis, Park Board Representative Kyra Richter, Planning Commissioner Representative John Vitucci and Brentwood Staff Members Erin Kiney of Parks and Deanna Lambert, Community Relations Director.

 

The TUFC have presented the Tennessee Awards of Excellence program since 1993.

Category: Williamson County News