Tree City USA

When Bill Warren looks out across his yard, his eyes often rest on a memory. The sapling his daughter planted as a child is now a tree, and, while she’s grown andaway at college, she’s left a piece of her that will always remain at home. In Mountain Brook, almost every tree has a story, and many of those began at the annual Arbor Day Tree Giveaway. It’s where Warren’s daughter received her tree, and this year’s event is certain to provide thousands of new memories like theirs. Much has gone into putting this year’s giveaway together – about 19 years’ worth of work. In 1993, Mountain Brook achieved all the goals required to become a Tree City USA, a designation awarded by the Arbor Day Foundation that the city shares with more than 3,400 communities across the nation. Four things are required of a community to become a Tree City: the creation of a tree board or department, an ordinance giving the commission authority to create an annual forestry work plan, an annual forestry budget of approximately $2 per resident and an annual Arbor Day proclamation.

Warren is the director of the Mountain Brook Tree Commission, a board of volunteers including Billy Angell, Emily Branum, Ken Key, Sally Legg, Ruth Mears, David Price, Steve Bostock and Gina Thomas. The Commission works with Don Cafaro, Mountain Brook’s senior arborist, to be “legally responsible for the care and management of the community’s trees.”

“I can’t say enough good things about Don,” Warren said. “It’s unbelievable the assistance he gives us. Sometimes I see him standing on top of his truck cutting down a hazardous limb on a Saturday. He’s just a real conscientious guy and a tremendous asset to the city.”

Cafaro, 35, has been city arborist for about eight years. He said his job description is chiefly to care for trees on city rights-of-way and in the villages, but Mountain Brook is a Tree City in more than just the municipal sense.

“You’ve heard the saying ‘Sometimes you can miss the forest for the trees, right?’” Cafaro said. “Well, in Mountain Brook, sometimes you can miss the trees for the forest. One of the most important things I do is to keep people thinking about how the various choices they make might affect things down the road.”

Cafaro said even though he and the Commission aren’t required to work on private property, the vast majority of property owners in Mountain Brook desire an attractive landscape that includes large healthy trees that frame their houses. As such, he spends time educating the public on how to nurture healthy trees and, in turn, many members of the community come to him with questions.

Another key in the Foundation’s requirements to be a Tree City USA is municipal money spent: $2 per capita. In the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had approximately 20,000 residents, so it would need to give Cafaro a $40,000 salary and call it a day.

Instead, in 2011 Mountain Brook spent approximately $230,000 maintaining its arboreal assets, earning the Foundation’s Growth Award for the 10th year in a row and the Sterling Tree City USA distinction. Only 500 communities receive the growth award annually, and only half have reached the Sterling level. Cafaro said it’s an award that belongs to the people.

“The average tree canopy that Mountain Brook maintains requires people taking responsibility on themselves, which helps people like me who want to preserve it,” Cafaro said. “I’m not trying to go out there with a foreign concept I’m trying to get people to realize. They already know how valuable their trees are.”