At last night’s council meeting, city staff announced that Long Beach was designated as a Tree City USA. The designation is awarded to cities that meet four standards established by The National Arbor Day Foundation and the National Association of State Foresters. For more information about these standards, click here.
City staff sought the designation after legislation sponsored by Councilmemeber Tonia Reyes-Uranga passed the council last year encouraging the city to explore becoming a Tree City USA. Some of the other local cities with the designation include Anaheim, Burbank, Cerritos, Covina, Costa Mesa, Fullerton, Lakewood and Westminster.
It’s great that Long Beach was granted this designation, but we have a long ways to go to create a truly green and urban city. We need more trees, more parks and we need to make better choices in selecting our trees.
If you have driven down Pine Ave lately, you will notice dying, wilting and unwatered trees…the same goes for many other local neighborhoods. So let’s celebrate our designation and get back to improving our green landscape.
A thank-you also needs to go out to the City Tree Committee who worked on the urban city master plan and the Tree City designation.