Locals graduate from Tree Academy
COSHOCTON – Following a PowerPoint presentation, eight members of the community graduated from the Tree Commission Academy, which is a group of local citizens that are now armed with knowledge about the trees in the city of Coshocton. Lola Lewis, a regional urban forester with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, presented the class with their framed certificates of graduation. Graduates are; Jason Randles, Coshocton Mayor Steve Mercer, Debbie Gaumer, Jim Ruby, Ann Miller, Tracey Wiseman, Dorothy Skowrunski and Steve Fox, who served as the chair.
Fox served as the chair of the eight member class. A special citation was given to Robert Pell of the Coshocton Foundation, for a $25,000 grant in 2013 that helped the Coshocton Tree Commission utilize a third party software vendor to take an inventory of the city’s trees. It only took the vendor two weeks to compile a robust inventory of the more than 3,000 trees in the city – which includes the species of tree and the current condition of the tree. The company being used is the Davey Group.
Generally speaking, the trees in the inventory are trees that are located between the street and the sidewalk. A special citation was also presented to Dr. Randy Kreuter from the Montgomery Foundation for a grant in the amount of $15,000. Progress has already been made with 42 priority one trees being removed in 2014. These are trees that were considered to be damaged or presented potential hazards.
Debbie Wallace talked about the Tree Ordinance that passed through city council in June of 2014 and the impact it can have on the community and the city’s trees.
The group also expressed thanks to the Coshocton Is Blooming organization. Group chair Fox said in talking about the importance of the group, “We want to take care of our trees because this is our home.” Fox also commented on donations received from people that grew up in Coshocton but are not living here.
The Coshocton Tree Commission has a tree fund that is established under the Coshocton Is Blooming organization as a 501c3.
The group is just getting started but feels that a lot of progress has already been made and it was further noted that a city the size of Coshocton is fortunate to have a significant number of people that have graduated from the Tree Commission Academy.
mark@coshoctoncountybeacon.com
Category: People & Places
