This holiday season planting of four Cherokee Princess Flowering Dogwoods commemorated this year’s Arbor Day accomplishments and marks the first step in the renovation of City Hall’s historic landscape.  Lowell’s City Hall was built in 1893 and is the centerpiece of the City Hall Historic District.  In 1911, renowned Olmsted Brothers Landscape Architects created a planting plan for Lowell’s City Hall.  Using elements from this significant landscape design, the City of Lowell has begun the process restoring the gardens and landscape around City Hall with the planting of these four trees.

The city’s annual Arbor Day celebration (usually held in the first week in April) aimed to increase community awareness of the valuable role that trees play in an urban environment and to build community involvement in the care and protection of urban trees and their rural forest counterparts.  The Tree City USA® program, sponsored by the Arbor Day Foundation in cooperation with the USDA Forest Service and the National Association of State Foresters, provides direction, technical assistance, public attention, and national recognition for urban and community forestry programs in thousands of towns and cities that more than 135 million Americans call home.

Trees were provided by a grant through the Lowell Parks & Conservation Trust.  The mission of the Lowell Parks & Conservation Trust is to improve the quality of life for the people of Lowell through the creation, conservation, and preservation of parks, open spaces and special places.  Launched as “2000 for 2000” an effort to plant 2,000 trees by the year 2000, LP&CT has far exceeded this goal. Improvements to local parks, schools, property values and general air quality are measurable with such aggressive planting programs.