August 20 Tree Commission meeting
Covered by Documenters Meagan Rodgers (see her notes here) and Brittany Nader (see her thread here)
For the last four months, the Akron Tree Commission has worked to establish either a Tree of the Month or Tree of the Season award to highlight beautiful or significant trees in the city.
Commission members are still working out the kinks of the program, but at the Aug. 20 meeting, Vice Chair (and Council Member At-Large) Jeff Fusco said they are in the process of developing and designing signage, brochures and communication strategies.
Once the commission settles on a name and design, they will be passed to Stephanie Marsh, the city’s director of communications.
The program aimed to identify trees in the area and provide the property owner with a certificate and yard sign to display — it was first introduced as a Tree of the Month program at the commission’s May meeting.
South Carolina town has similar program
Commission members discussed an existing program in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, in which the Tree Board members select or the community nominates a tree for recognition. The Tree Board then posts a photo of the tree on Facebook and shares facts about it.
Since then, members have discussed possibly making it a “Tree of the Season” award so as not to burden the city’s service department with placing and removing signs each month.
“The service department is over-taxed, and we don’t have enough people to cover everything,” Fusco said. “So it’s probably going to fall on us to review applications, and I just think a seasonal tree might be a good idea just to start with, and we can grow it over time.”
Under Tree of the Season, a tree would be selected or nominated in each of the city’s four quadrants rather than choosing from each of the 10 wards. Residents will have the ability to submit an application for tree recognition.
Fusco emailed a city “down south” with a similar program to ask about how they nominate trees and what criteria they look for. He is awaiting a reply.
In the meantime, Fusco said the tree commission will reach out to Summit Metro Parks to see if itcan help spread the word about the program and possibly nominate a few trees.
“It’s taking a little bit of time to put it together, and it’s going to, but that’s OK,” Fusco said. “Maybe in the fall, we’ll be able to get this thing up and running and we can go from there.”
Expanding the Akron Tree Commission
Also at the meeting, the commission discussed expanding from five to seven or nine members.
Fusco and Commission Chair Sarah Vradenburg previously met with people interested in joining the commission, and Fusco said there are a few strong candidates. At the July Tree Commission meeting, Fusco said nine would be an ideal number, allowing for members from different parts of the city and from diverse backgrounds.
“I also think it would be prudent for us to work and develop our relationship with Keep Akron Beautiful, because their mission is beginning to become similar to ours,” Fusco said. “Same with the Metro Parks. [We need to] figure out ways that we could join and work more closely together, even if it means adding them on as corporate/nonprofit folks.”
There’s also the possibility of establishing a “Friends of…” entity, similar to Friends of the Library, for the Tree Commission. Commisioners made no decision at the meeting, as two of the five members were absent, and those present didn’t want to continue without their input.
Watch a livestream of the meeting.
