Athens Community Tree Council

Join us!!!

Please join us tomorrow to celebrate the Athens Community Tree Council and Georgia Arbor Day! It’s a great way to learn about what we do and take home a few free saplings!

For more than 20 years, the Community Tree Council has planted trees and promoted our Athens urban forest through educational outreach and policy recommendation. Members offer their time and talent for a 3 year term, and regular meetings are at 4pm on the 2nd Monday of every month. If interested, please contact the ACC Community Forestry Coordinator, Mateo Fennell, at 706-521-1360 or www.AthensTreeCouncil.com   

The Athens CTC is thrilled to have presented Laura Hall and Royal Landscape Design (owned by Hall Roberts) with our Tree Steward Awards this year at the Green Life Expo!

Laura Hall has worked as a land conservation professional in Athens for more than 20 years. She is the Conservation Director with the Oconee River Land Trust and a Landscape Architect. Laura Hall and Rachel Hopkins founded the Piedmont Preserve, a 50 acre urban oasis in the heart of Athens, Georgia. Laura is the Director of Wild Earth Camp, located at the Piedmont Preserve. There children are encouraged to connect to the natural environment through exploration, earth skills, tracking, crafting, storytelling and studying birds and native plants. She has dedicated her life to the conservation of land, sharing her passion, knowledge and skills with the Athens community.

Royal Landscape & Gardens is a full service landscape design and build firm. However, the term landscaper doesn’t speak to all that they are. Royal Landscape & Gardens considers themselves land managers, designers, project managers, gardeners, visionaries, and conservationists.Small scale to large scale, Royal wants to provide solutions to blend the human and natural landscape.

We had a great time celebrating Arbor Day last month at ! Perfect venue to gather, share our mission and give away tulip poplar and dogwood saplings!

This year is the 23rd year that Athens GA has been designated an official Tree City Community by the Arbor Day Foundation. To become a Tree City Community, a city must 1. Maintain a tree board (ours is the ) 2. Have a robust community tree ordinance 3. Spend $2 or more per capita on urban forestry and 4. Celebrate Arbor Day!

Guess what this Friday is??? It’s GEORGIA ARBOR DAY!!!! 🥳🥳🥳 Drop by to see us to celebrate on Friday, 2/17 from 5-7pm. We’ll have FREE TREES to give away along with gifts for donations. Oh- they’ll also have tacos by Homy’s Kitchen on site too! Seriously. Does it get any better? See y’all Friday! This is a joint event with the tree council and

The CTC hosted a project site for MLK day on January 16. There were over 20 participants there helping to get 6 very large trees in the ground, watered and mulched. The species planted were Eastern Red Cedar, Northern Red Oak, and Black Gum. The trees were purchased by the CTC out of our Trees for Tomorrow find for the Carl Jordan Grove along the Firefly trail. Thank you to ALL who used the MLK holiday as a Day On for Service! “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing to serve others?’”

Now Through February Is a Great Time to Plant a Tree - Flagpole I know some folks dream of a snowy winter, but here in Georgia, I’m thinking about trees—and not just the decorated Christmas variety. Winter is the best time to plant trees and larger woody shrubs in the South. Our ground doesn’t freeze solid like it does in the great frozen tundra that is th...

Our Forest Bathing event at Sandy Creek led by Tina Tinsley was a success- “It was a tranquil, healing experience and a beautiful morning. We started with an introduction, then did a slow walk to connect and calm our minds. Then we found individual sit spots and sat on the ground for 15 minutes connecting to the forest.” Our Education Committee works hard to create meaningful events for the public that help connect us all to the urban forest, with the ultimate goal of bringing awareness to the mission of preserving and enhancing the forest canopy in Athens. We hope you’ll join us sometime. Thank you, Tina!

The Tree Council is so excited to offer this free forest bathing event with certified Forest therapist Tina Tinsley! Please join us!