City Plans Arbor Day Ceremony at Langdon Park on April 26, 2024

For over twenty years, the Arbor Day Foundation has recognized Portsmouth with its Tree City USA Award. For the past five years, the Foundation has also awarded its Tree Growth Award to the City’s Department of Public Works urban forestry crew. City Arborist Supervisor Max Wiater with the City’s Parks and Greenery Division, led by Parks and Greeneries Foreman, Corin Hallowell and the Trees & Public Greenery Committee, have helped Portsmouth achieve this distinction and plan to honor the outgoing Trees & Greenery Committee Co-Chair with this year’s Arbor Day commemorations.

On Friday, April 26, 2024, at 9 am, the City will issue the Mayor’s Arbor Day Proclamation in a ceremony at Langdon Park (between the tennis courts and Rockland Street). The ceremony includes a tree planting in honor of Richard Adams who is stepping down from the Committee after two decades of service. Adams joined the Trees and Public Greenery Committee in March 2003, just a month after it was formed. He has provided invaluable assistance to the City, with a special interest in the history of the trees in Portsmouth’s urban forest. He has shared a wide range of information with the Committee, including the 40-page program produced for the May 1876 Langdon Park ceremony dedicating five acres of land between South Street and South Mill Pond donated by John Elwyn in 1867, for the creation of the City’s first park.

In a letter announcing the awards to Mayor McEachern, Arbor Day Foundation Chief Executive Dan Lambe said, “Thank you for taking pride in your community by planting, nurturing, and celebrating trees. Your community has demonstrated an outstanding commitment to sustainable urban forest management. Over the last few years, the value and importance of trees has become increasingly clear. Cities and towns across the globe are facing issues with air quality, water resources, personal health and well-being, and energy use. Portsmouth has taken steps to create a brighter, greener future.”

Founded in 1976, Tree City USA is a partnership between the Arbor Day Foundation, the U.S. Forest Service, and the National Association of State Foresters. The award depends on meeting the program’s four requirements: a tree board or department, a tree-care ordinance, an annual community forestry budget of at least two dollars per capita, and an Arbor Day observance and proclamation. The Tree City USA Growth Award recognizes Portsmouth for demonstrating environmental improvement and a higher level of tree care.

Portsmouth earns its long-standing reputation with the Arbor Day Foundation because there are over 15,000 trees in Portsmouth that provide natural beauty, shade, and historic character. City Arborist Wiater works with a team of arborists, the nine-member Trees and Public Greenery Committee chaired by Peter Loughlin and A.J. Dupere, Urban Forester from the New Hampshire Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, Division of Forests and Lands, to preserve Portsmouth’s urban forest through tree preservation techniques, yearly tree plantings and inventory management to maintain a diverse urban forest.

For more information visit the City’s urban forest and its Tree Protection and Planting guidelines page.