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Our mission is to sustain Georgia's green legacy by partnering with individuals, organizations, and communities in raising awareness toward improving and maintaining Georgia's community forests.  Learn more and get involved.

News & Notes

The Columbus Georgia Convention and Trade Center, 901 Front Avenue, Columbus, GA, is the site for our 2023 Annual Georgia Tree Conference. Our annual signature education event will be attended by arborists, foresters, landscape architects, city planners, city administrators, tree boards, nonprofits, citizen tree advocates and others who work to keep a healthy tree canopy maintained in Georgia communities.

This year, we'll be saying "Trees are the Answer!" and will be sharing "Tools, Techniques and Data for Protecting the Benefits of the Urban Forest for the Next Five Years ... and Beyond."

ISA Arborist CEUs: 11

Forestry CFEs: 10.5

Landscape Architects and other professionals will receive certificates of attendance for their CEU records.

Join us!

We are pleased to announce that the Georgia Tree Council has been awarded reaccreditation by the Standards for Excellence® Institute. Our participation in this national voluntary accreditation and recognition program demonstrates our continued commitment to ethics and accountability in nonprofit management and governance. The Georgia Tree Council has been awarded the Standards for Excellence® Seal since 2008, the first nonprofit organization in Georgia to do so.  To learn more about Standards for Excellence® accreditation for nonprofits, visit https://standardsforexcellence.org.

Where can we go to see magnificent collections of trees? In this two-part webinar series, "Georgia's Arboretums," representatives from various Georgia botanical gardens and arboretums talk to us about their venues, their locations, history, and the outstanding trees maintained there.  These gardens and arboretums are excellent places to visit and learn about tree species.  To view the webinars, click on "What We Do" at the top of this page, then "Resources," and then "Program Presentation Archives" or on the "green" here.

The Georgia Forestry Commission and Georgia Tree Council used federal hurricane relief funding to hire a Colorado-based trees and technology consulting firm, PlanIT Geo, to measure the damage to the region's urban forest. With this information, GFC and GTC aim to assist communities with restoration of tree canopy and ensure that new trees are planted strategically and equitably across the landscape, with a focus on the hardest hit areas, historically underserved communities, and areas with the most viable planting space. A map of all trees and planting areas was created using pre- and post-storm aerial imagery to begin this effort. The damage was then totaled within affected communities and neighborhoods to begin to tell the story of Hurricane Michael's impacts on southwest Georgia's urban tree canopy. Click to read the full report.

The Georgia Tree Council and the Georgia Forestry Commission now offer those interested in becoming an ISA Certified Arborist® the opportunity to view recordings of our ISA Certified Arborist® Exam Course Webinars online.  Over seven recorded webinars, instructors and certified arborists Rob Swanson and Susan Russell help attendees prepare for the exam with talks covering Tree Biology, Tree Identification, Soil Science, Water Management, Tree Nutrition and Fertilization, Tree Selection, Installation and Establishment, Pruning, Tree Support and Lightning Protection, Diagnosis and Plant Disorders, Plant Health Care, Tree Assessment and Risk Management, Trees and Construction, Urban Forestry, Tree Worker Safety, and Climbing & Working in Trees.

The newly revised tree pruning manual is now available as a free download from the Warnell Outreach Publications website.

The title is “ Pruning Trees: Anatomical, Biological & Structural Foundations “ Manual number is “WSFNR-21-33B” (75 pages).

This manual has been revised four times over the last 22 years.