Searcy committee may consider regulation of trees
By Warren Watkins
Published:
Wednesday, January 27, 2010 5:27 PM CST
The
Daily Citizen
Searcy may be getting greener as a proposal is debated concerning the regulation
of trees.
The Searcy Planning, Growth and Transportation Committee met Wednesday to
discuss proposals for new policies concerning trees in the city as well as a
proposal regulating recreational vehicles (RV’s).
To qualify for the Tree City USA program, a town or city must meet
standards established by The
National Arbor Day Foundation and the National Association of State
Foresters, according to City Planner Jim von Tungeln. The standards were
established to ensure that every qualifying community would have a viable tree
management plan and program.
To participate, each city must have a tree board or department, a responsible
person or department responsible for community tree care and a tree ordinance
that would designate responsibility for writing and implementing an annual
community forestry work plan. The ordinance determines public tree care policies
for planting, maintenance, and removals.
The city tree budget must be $2 per capita, and if Searcy has a population of
22,000, as some estimate, the city would have to designate $44,000 for the
program to pay for dead and hazardous tree removal, pruning, planting, watering,
fertilizing and insect and disease control.
One of the benefits of the tree program is enhancement of the city’s public
image and public pride, von Tungeln reported
