The Corridor Habitat Initiative, Bloomington, Minnesota, recipient of one of five 2001 Project Awards in recognition of outstanding collaborative efforts involving tree planting and environmental stewardship. The Initiative is a community forestry program designed to lower maintenance costs while environmentally enhancing the land within transmission line right-of-way corridors. The program is administered through the Tree Trust in partnership with the City of Bloomington and was started in 1998. Xcel Energy (formerly known as Northern States Power) sponsors the program, which enriches the area underneath their transmission lines and reduces the maintenance costs of the transmission right-of-ways. General Electric Power Systems, of Schenectady, New York, winner of a Project Award. General Electric has transformed much of its 320-acre facility, which employs 4,500 people, back to green spaces and has planted more than 2,200 trees. The area, which is the original 1886 site of Thomas Edison’s machine works plant, now boasts such recreational areas as tennis courts and baseball and soccer fields. Greenspace—The Cambria Land Trust, Cambria, California, winner of a Project Award for its conservation work in the North Coast Area of California’s San Luis Obispo County. Greenspace protects and enhances the area’s ecological systems through land acquisition and management, public education, and advocacy. The group was founded in 1988, with one of its current achievements being the preservation of the Cambria Monterey Pine Forest, which contains one of the five remaining populations of Monterey pines. The Nashville Tree Foundation, Nashville, Tennessee, honored with a Project Award for ReLeaf Nashville, an effort begun to reforest Nashville’s urban forest after the devastating tornadoes of 1998. ReLeaf Nashville includes a five-year plan that has already been responsible for planting thousands of large-caliper trees and developing educational and promotional materials. The Nashville Tree Foundation raised more than a million dollars to help reforest the city. The Tazewell-Mason Counties Special Education Association (TMCSEA), of Pekin, Illinois, recipient of the final 2001 Project Award. In 1997, the TMCSEA began creating a wheelchair-accessible nature trail in its 7-acre educational center. With community support, the Association completed the project in 1998 and added onto it in 1999 and 2000. In addition to the accessible trail, improvements include planting more trees and flowerbeds and adding new playground equipment as well as a pavilion, picnic shelters, and a paved trail. Leaders in tree planting and environmental stewardship from around the country and world will be honored by The Arbor Day Foundation at its 28th annual Arbor Day Awards celebration to be held in Nebraska City, Nebraska on Saturday, April 29, 2000. The awards ceremony is part of the Arbor Day weekend celebration held in Nebraska City from April 28-30. Award winners are recognized for their leadership in the cause of tree planting, conservation, and environmental stewardship. |