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Government / News / Southampton Press / 1982853

Southampton Village Edges Closer To Tree City USA Status

authorCailin Riley on Jun 22, 2022

Southampton Village took a few steps closer to meeting Tree City USA requirements earlier this week when the Village Board unanimously approved a walk-on resolution at its work session on Tuesday night, June 21, to fulfill one of the program requirements.

The board agreed to establish a three-person tree board, which will be empowered to make recommendations to the Village Board when it comes time to implement the program.

Tree City USA is a program run by the Arbor Day Foundation that helps encourage tree growth and maintenance in urban communities.

There are four requirements that must be met to earn Tree City status: the town or village must maintain a tree board department, have a community tree ordinance, spend at least $2 per capita on urban forestry, and celebrate Arbor Day.

Christian Picot of the Southampton Village Planning Commission gave a presentation on the status of the application to earn Tree City USA status at Tuesday night’s work session, outlining those steps. Up next for the village will be the scheduling of a public hearing to discuss any code changes that will need to be made to fully comply with the Tree City USA requirements.

According to arborday.org, in 2021, 3,652 municipalities had Tree City USA status, with nearly $1.4 billion invested in urban forestry, with 941,725 trees planted.

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