Your Community Tree Program: Shade Tree Commissions

Many communities recognize that properly planted, maintained, and protected shade trees go beyond aesthetics to add to municipal sustainability and the health and welfare of their citizens and property. A most efficiently run tree program involves and educates its citizens while planning and managing its tree population. That's where a Shade Tree Commission or Environmental Advisory Commission plays an important role.

With enabling legislation, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania encourages municipalities to have an appointed body of citizens responsible for the planning and care of its environmental resources. A municipality's elected officials choose, often with public input or request, whether to have a Shade Tree Commission (STC) or an Environmental Advisory Commission (EAC). They pass a local ordinance designating whether this STC or EAC has an advisory or administrative role, often aligning the group within the municipal organizational structure, and spelling out their duties. This both defines and empowers an STC or EAC to act at a community level.

Some organizational duties an EAC or STC may perform include educational and community involvement, cooperation among different departments, municipal personnel, or agencies, fiscal efficiency, and increasing tree canopy on public rights of way. Generally, the emphasis is on planting and maintaining a diversity of trees along streets and in public areas. Some provide guidelines for the removal and replacement of shade trees or for installing green infrastructure to best manage or reduce the costs and impacts of stormwater management. Rarely does the STC offer protection for historic or environmentally significant trees on private property. Lastly, some STCs take on an enforcement role to ensure that ecosystem services and values remain protected in their public tree resource.

To start an STC or EAC in your community, learn more about starting a municipal tree commission or contact an Extension Urban Forester in your region.