City Of Brentwood: Brentwood Tree Board Wins State Awards Of Excellence

Press release from the City of Brentwood:

11/09/2021

 The Brentwood Tree Board is the winner of two Awards of Excellence, a program sponsored by the Tennessee Urban Forestry Council, or TUFC and the Tennessee Department of Agriculture, Division of Forestry. According to TUFC, the Awards of Excellence are presented to those for outstanding leadership, education efforts or activities that have made a significant contribution to establishing and maintaining viable community forests in Tennessee.  TUFC President Neil Letson presented the awards and said, “these are our highest honors to recognize a board or committee.  In our twenty-eight-year program, this is the first time the Brentwood Tree Board has made the list and we want to congratulate you for this honor.”

The Brentwood Tree Board was selected as the 2021Tree Board recipient through the Awards of Excellence program for its long list of significant progress in meeting the goals of the local urban forestry program.  Some of the highlights included in the award nomination included:

Recent Years’ Accomplishments:

Specific Accomplishments during the Pandemic:

•                 Established a virtual weeklong Arbor Day Celebration in 2021 themed: Stress Re-leaf – Go-See-a-Tree.

Highlights of the celebration included:

Tree Board Chairperson, Lynn Tucker said, “throughout the pandemic, the Brentwood Tree Board used technology to its advantage and continued to meet virtually and in outdoor venues, with significant attendance of the full Board. I am very proud of this board and the major accomplishments of the past year.”  

Letson presented the 2021 Media Award of Excellence to the Brentwood Tree Board staff person and Brentwood Community Relations Director, Deanna Lambert.  Letson said “we know our communication professionals have had an extremely difficult year managing the pandemic messages on top all the other regular communication duties. This award in the past has gone to a traditional television media entity but with the evolvement of the power of social media and the level of what Brentwood did during its virtual week, it only made sense to honor Deanna Lambert for her work.”  Mayor Little said, “none of Brentwood’s virtual weeklong Arbor Day celebration would have happened without Deanna and her leadership. For this and all she does, we say thank you and congratulate Deanna on this well-deserved recognition!”

The 2021 Virtual Arbor Day celebration in Brentwood included three live video segments, 14 pre-recorded videos and more than a dozen social media posts.  Topics such as how to identify an ash tree, Story-time with Ms. Pat at the Brentwood Library and one Brentwood homeowner’s story about how she battled the Emerald Ash Borer were all part of the week.  We invite you to view the educational videos on the City of Brentwood YouTube Channel.

Members of the Brentwood Tree Board include Dane Anderson, Brian Evans, Scot Page, Chairperson Lynn Tucker, Cindy Harrison, Patty Schultz, John O’Brien, City Commission Ken Travis, Park Board Representative Kyra Richter, Planning Commissioner Representative John Vitucci and Brentwood Staff Members Erin Kiney of Parks and Deanna Lambert, Community Relations Director.

The TUFC have presented the Tennessee Awards of Excellence program since 1993.

This press release was produced by the City of Brentwood. The views expressed here are the author’s own.