NC Urban Forestry Awards
Every year the North Carolina Urban Forest Council is honored to present statewide Urban Forestry Awards. This award program recognizes communities, organizations, and individuals for their outstanding work in protecting and enhancing our community forests. Additionally, we showcase these annual awards to broaden community awareness about the importance of each recipient's work for our forest resources.
We welcome nominations for individuals, organizations, corporations, and institutions that have displayed excellence in their urban and community forestry practice. We select award recipients based on the following criteria:
- Projects result in significant enhancement of our urban and community forests, at the local or statewide level.
- Program accomplishments yield significant change for the betterment of the resource. The program also sets the standard for future endeavors in community forestry.
- Recognized activities occurred within the past three years.
2022 Award Recipients
At our 13th Annual Great NC Tree Conference in Greensboro, Executive Director Leslie Moorman and Board of Directors Chair Jeffery Kish celebrated several individuals and groups that have helped North Carolina manage, grow and protect its urban and community forests.
- Outstanding Program or Project, Bradford Pear Bounty Program. NCUFC delivered this award to Kelly Oten of North Carolina Cooperative Extension and Tara Moore of North Carolina Wildlife Federation. Together these women have spearheaded a program that is reducing the presence of invasive Bradford pear trees across the state.
- Outstanding Professional, Liz Riley of Alamance Community College. This award honored Liz's implementation of the Arboriculutre Certificate and Apprenticeship Program, a 16-week training curricululm that helps novice urban foresters succeed in the field.
- Outstanding Volunteer, Connie Parker of Alliance for Cape Fear Trees. The Council presented this award in recognition of Connie's steadfast dedication to tree advocacy and community engagement throughout the City of Wilmington.
Past Awardees
The City of Wilson’s Appearance Commission worked closely with its city arborist, city council, and other public and private organizations to coordinate all of their activities that involved trees. This means everything from tree planting, inventories, and surveys to project planning approval, and education. This Commission used Urban Offsets to initiate the City of Wilson's project. For these efforts, the Wilson Appearance Commission received the Outstanding Tree Board Award in 2016.
The Outstanding Individual Award in 2015 was presented to Ken King. Ken has always been the hands-on, driving force behind the Town of Oriental's Tree Board. His dedication to the restoration of Oriental's tree canopy has made Ken a role model for tree-related volunteers across the state.
The City of Rocky Mount received the Outstanding Project Award in 2014 for its outstanding level of effort incorporating proper urban tree species into its revitalized streetscape. City staff set a commendable example of dedication to the right tree in the right place concept throughout the project's planning, installation, and maintenance stages.
