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Excellence in Urban Forestry Awards

2022 Excellence in Urban Forestry Award Recipients

Recipients were honored at our November 2 conference awards luncheon at the Courtyard by Marriott Rome Riverwalk.


Excellence in Urban Forestry Awards Categories

Each year, the Georgia Tree Council rewards individuals, organizations, businesses, municipalities, and counties for outstanding work in protecting and enhancing our community forests. One Grand Award is given to selected nominees in the following categories: 

  • Marketing:  Recognizes a group or individual who develops an outstanding marketing plan that incorporates specific objects, a target audience, and strategies to increase urban forestry awareness.
  • Streetscape Revitalization:  Recognizes a city or design firm that has made outstanding contributions to the revitalization of an existing urban streetscape using large shade trees to define outdoor spaces, shade sidewalks and streets, help create a pedestrian environment, and increase economic appeal.
  • Greenspace Plan:  Recognizes a community that has executed a greenspace plan emphasizing the importance of passive recreation, connectivity of parks and paths, homes for wildlife, and air quality in our urban environments.
  • New Development:  Recognizes new development that focuses on good urban forestry practices, such as tree preservation and protection, use of pervious pavement, and working with natural ecosystems.
  • New Initiative:  Recognizes a non-profit group or individual with a brand new urban forestry program in the state of Georgia.  The program must have demonstrated some action within the past year.
  • Business:  Recognizes a company or an individual whose business efforts have supported or promoted Georgia’s urban forests.
  • Media:  Recognizes an individual or company for efforts to publicize tree events, tree protection, and/or Georgia’s urban forestry efforts.  This category is open to newspapers, newsletters, magazines, radio, television, and public relations firms.
  • Civic Organization:  Recognizes an organization, such as a non-profit tree group, tree board, homeowner association, garden club or others for exceptional efforts to protect and promote Georgia’s urban forests.
  • Community:  Recognizes a county, city, town or neighborhood that has built a program to value, conserve, manage, and enhance the urban environment.  The program must show sustainability and demonstrate that it is moving to build capacity.
  • Elected/Appointed Official:  Recognizes an elected or appointed official who has made outstanding contributions to the development, protection and maintenance of the urban forest.   This may include establishing a tree ordinance or tree board or directing money and support to non-profit tree programs.
  • Education:  Recognizes a person or an institution that has been prominently creative and effective in an effort to inform or educate Georgians about trees and natural resources in the urban environment.
  • Individual Achievement:  Recognizes a person who has made outstanding contributions to urban forestry efforts in Georgia.
  • Student:  Recognizes a student who has made an exceptional contribution to Georgia’s urban forest.
  • Urban Arboriculture:  Recognizes an individual or organization for outstanding tree care in an urban environment.  The entry focuses on tree preservation or restoration that might include pruning, fertilization, transplanting or any other approved arboricultural practice that might prolong the life of the tree(s).

Click here to read about past Excellence in Urban Forestry Awards recipients.

Frequently-asked Questions:

Who is eligible to enter the Georgia Urban Forestry Awards program?

Outstanding work, whether public or private, is eligible for nomination.  Individuals, non-profit organizations, businesses, municipalities and counties, schools, civic groups, and others are welcomed and encouraged to make nominations in more than one category.  A nominee does not have to be a member of the Georgia Tree Council.  The awards program is open to all who have made a contribution to the urban forest in our communities.

When is the deadline for submitting a nomination this year?

Award nomination submissions must be received by the Georgia Tree Council by 5 p.m. on August 31.

When are awards given?

Entry contestants will be notified of judges’ results by September 30.

Grand award recipients of this year’s Georgia Excellence in Urban Forestry Awards will be recognized at GTC’s 2022 Annual Georgia Tree Conference Awards Luncheon on November 2 at the Courtyard by Marriott Rome Riverwalk in Rome, Georgia.

What does the recipient receive?

Grand award winners will receive a limited edition framed print of a majestic Georgia tree commissioned solely for Georgia Tree Council.  All winners will be featured on our website and in our e-newsletter, and a press release with photo will be shared with the recipient or the recipient's local media.

Click here for Judging Criteria and Winning Strategies for Applicants.

Submit an Excellence in Urban Forestry Award Nomination using the following form:

Category (choose one):
Please upload photos of your nominee's work (up to ten). Please give each file a descriptive name related to the project (i.e., Tree Planting.jpg). Multiple files can be included on one field. To do this, Ctrl-click multiple files and drag them ALL onto the field at one time. Or, if you wish, you may load them up one at a time in the fields below.
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Authorization to Release
All of the information above is accurate, and I release entry material to the Georgia Tree Council for media use and other purposes GTC deems appropriate.