The Tree Board meets each year for Arbor Day, and then on an as-needed basis. The Tree Board is involved with trees on the City street rights-of-way (between sidewalk and street) and there are City ordinances regarding City trees.
Arbor Day in Missouri is celebrated on the first Friday in April. In Centralia, it is celebrated each year with the Centralia 4th-grade students. A tree is planted at the school, each student receives a tree seedling and planting instructions from the Missouri Department of Conservation, and topics such as Arbor Day and tree planting are discussed with the students. The local newspaper is requested to attend and publish a photo.
Centralia is a Tree City USA, and has been for more than 32 years. An application is submitted at the end of each calendar year and notification of renewal is received before Arbor Day occurs the next year. A plaque with each year is on the wall at City Hall, a Tree City USA flag is flown on the City Square,and two street signs are posted on Lakeview Street and Singleton Street near Highway 124.
The Four Standards of a Tree City USA
- A Tree Board or Department
- A Tree Care Ordinance
- A Community Forestry Program with an Annual Budget of at Least $2 Per Capita
- An Arbor Day Observance and Proclamation
Centralia has received some Tree Resource Improvement and Maintenance (TRIM) grants from the Missouri Department of Conservation in the past. [Trees] These grants have been used to plant and trim City trees, and to place advertisements in the local newspaper about not topping trees. The maple and crabapple trees planted along Singleton between Collier and Bradford are examples of trees planted using a TRIM grant .
A new issue the Tree Board is just starting to look at is the Emerald Ash Borer (EAB), which has infested ash trees in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and northern Illinois. Centralia has a large population of ash trees. Missouri Department of Conservation has information about EAB here.
Based on this information, it suggested that citizens of Centralia not plant any new ash trees.
