BACKGROUND:
Tyler, Texas is blessed with a beautiful urban forest. We are a natural beauty, as our City logo states and a great deal of the credit should be given to trees. Major efforts have been made in the City of Tyler to both protect this urban forest and to add to it.
More than twenty years ago the TREES Committee was established with a goal to protect the natural trees and to teach people how to plant more trees. Countless hours have been spent on tree plantings as well as working on City Ordinances to provide protection for trees. This tree initiative has evolved over the years and most recently played a major role in the City’s Tyler 21 master plan effort. Through this public process it became evident that our citizens recognize the importance and value of trees to this community. Trees provide a range of benefits including, but not limited to, an increase in property valuation, environmental affects, and aesthetic impacts.
THE PLAN:
To respond to the community’s desire to save and plant trees, the City of Tyler is launching a new program to bring the spotlight on all these efforts by creating one clear goal: Tree Tyler. The Mayor’s 2015 Tree Tyler program will be Mayor driven, and will establish a goal and implementation strategy to plant a particular species and number of trees annually.