Grand Prairie Honored With Gold Leaf Award for Arbor Day of the Year
The city of Grand Prairie Parks and Recreation Department has received the coveted Arbor Day Gold Leaf Award of the Year from the Texas Chapter of the International Society of Arboriculture and the Texas State Forest Service.
The Arbor Day Gold Leaf Award is designed to recognize an individual, organization, or community for outstanding Arbor Day programs that have shown an impact over several years through special projects, ceremonies, news articles or observations with an Arbor Day theme.
Grand Prairie’s efforts to preserve and promote our environment and trees include:
- Grand Prairie has been a Tree City USA for 27 years.
- Grand Prairie is the third oldest Tree City in the state of Texas.
- The city has received the National Arbor Day Foundation Tree City USA Growth Award for 10 years.
- Grand Prairie has hosted three State Arbor Day celebrations.
- The last State Arbor Day hosted by Grand Prairie was held in 2009 on the 25th anniversary of the city’s Tree City USA designation and its 100th year as an incorporated city. More than 1,000 people attended and each person received their own tree to plant.
- The 2010 Arbor Day Ceremony, held at the Summit Active Adult Center, had more than 700 children in attendance along with 400 adults. More than 1,000 trees were handed out and addresses recorded so that the trees would become part of the Tree North Texas Initiative. This program will result in 3 million trees being planted in North Texas during the next 10 years.
- The city offers the opportunity to purchase and dedicate trees in the Grand Prairie Living Memorial Forest, Centennial Tree Program and Summit Guardians Program. Each program allows people to dedicate trees to individuals, groups and organizations that people would like to memorialize forever with the planting of a tree.
Source: City of Grand Prairie
