2010 Arbor Day Awards

Award for Excellence in Volunteer Management

Casey Trees of Washington, D.C.

Casey Trees of Washington, D.C., and Green City Partnerships Program of the Seattle area received the Award for Excellence in Volunteer Management for their outstanding efforts to engage volunteers in tree-planting initiatives.

Thousands of young trees are thriving throughout the District of Columbia thanks in large part to the hard work of volunteers from Casey Trees. Casey Trees, a nonprofit organization dedicated to restoring the tree canopy in Washington, D.C., set a goal to increase the city's tree canopy to 40 percent coverage by 2035. Since 2001, Casey Trees has trained 700 Citizen Foresters to become volunteer leaders and educators. These foresters are required to go through training to learn how to plant, care for and identify trees, and tell others how trees benefit a community. They, in turn, teach other volunteers in the community the basics of tree planting and care. Last year, more than 1,600 adults and 600 young children participated in 54 tree-planting events.

Green City Partnerships Program of the Seattle area

The Cascade Land Conservancy's Green City Partnerships Program is raising a volunteer army in the Seattle area numbering in the thousands to help plant trees in public parks and natural areas. Conservation organizations from Seattle, Tacoma, Kirkland, Redmond, and Kent, Wash., make up the Green City Partnerships Program. Created to reverse a trend of decreasing tree canopy, the Green City Partnerships Program last year alone provided opportunities for more than 10,000 volunteers to participate first-hand in urban forestry restoration events. These volunteers donated a combined 87,000 hours of manpower in 2009. Since the program's inception in 2004, the program has engaged nearly 20,000 people in the area.

This year’s winners are:

• Lifetime Stewardship Award

  • David Nowak

• Good Steward Award

  • Education at Big K of Macon, GA

• Public Awareness of Trees Award

  • Mayor John Hickenlooper of Denver, CO
  • Mile High Million Tree Initiative of Denver, CO

• Frederick Law Olmsted Award

  • Dave Mooter of Kennard, NE

• Excellence in Urban Forest Leadership Award

  • David Bragdon of Portland, OR

• Forest Lands Leadership Award

  • Jim Schmitt of Gering, NE

• Award for Excellence in Volunteer Management

  • Casey Trees of Washington, D.C.
  • Green City Partnerships Program of the Seattle area

• Champion of Trees Award

  • Steve Koehn of Annapolis, MD
  • The Kirkwood Junior TreeKeepers of Kirkwood, MO

• Lawrence Enersen Award

  • Robert Sympson of Lynbrook, NY

• Rachel Carson Award

  • Mary Kay Inc. of Dallas, TX

• Education Award

  • The Tree Commission Academy of Columbus, OH

• Excellence in Partnership Award

  • Perkins County Conservation District of Bison, S.D.

• Celebration Award

  • Sheila Flint of Sherwood Park, Alberta
  • Strathcona County Recreation Department of Sherwood Park, Alberta

• Legacy Award

  • Laurence Wiseman of Potomac, MD

• 2010 Promise to the Earth Award

  • The Progressive Group of Insurance Companies
  • T-Mobile USA