Oak Creek Recognized for Urban Forestry Innovations

City Forester Rebecca Lane and the Oak Creek forestry department have been given the Innovations in Urban Forestry Award from the Wisconsin Urban Forestry Council.

The award recognizes Oak Creek's participation in a creative approach to remove 516 at-risk trees in the city last fall.

The city, along with state officials, experimented with cost-effective ways to address the emerald ash borer outbreak in Wisconsin. Oak Creek and other entities demonstrated and analyzed the effectiveness of mechanized cut-to-length equipment to remove urban trees in a number of different situations.

Lane and the city were presented with a plaque during Tuesday's Common Council meeting.