MENASHA, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — Menasha is celebrating big growth.
On Friday, the city marked its 40th year as a Tree City USA designee from the Arbor Day Foundation.
As a member of the Tree City USA program, the community must follow a set of guidelines, which includes having a tree line designation for utilities.
UW-Fox Cities students worked alongside Menasha’s Parks, Recreation & Forestry employees to plant 40 trees at Barker Farm Park.
Menasha mayor, Don Merkes, says it’s his 16th Arbor Day celebration as mayor.
“It’s a great opportunity for us to showcase that urban forestry program that we have here. We’ve planted about 2,000 new trees since I’ve been mayor,” he said. “We have about 6,000 trees in the community and each one of those trees provides value for our stormwater, it provides value in the neighborhoods too. Who doesn’t want to live on a tree-lined street? Who doesn’t want to play in a big, shady park, so all these things are intrinsic values of having these trees and the beauty provides as well as environmental.”
There are only 200 communities in the state that receive the Tree City USA designation.
