Tree commission to pass out saplings to ‘Tree City USA’ residents

If you go grocery shopping or visit the library on March 21, you will be reminded what holiday it is: Arbor Day.

The Mountain Brook Tree Commission will be giving away seedlings on Saturday, March 21, from 9 a.m.-noon in front of the Emmet O’Neal Library as well as at Western in Mountain Brook Village, Whole Foods in Cahaba Village and Piggly Wiggly in River Run.

This year’s selections include white dogwood, eastern redbud, southern red oak, southern wax myrtle, yaupon holly and black gum. Tree Commission members will be on hand to provide planting tips and information about the trees. 

Also this year for the 21st year running, Mountain Brook has been named 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 for 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.

The Mountain Brook Tree Commission, a board of nine volunteers, works in conjunction with Don Cafaro, Mountain Brook’s senior arborist, to manage and care for the community’s trees.