Strongsville Hosts Regional Tree City USA Awards and Expands Urban Forestry Efforts

The City of Strongsville hosted a regional 2026 Tree City USA Award Ceremony this past May, welcoming 200 guests representing more than 52 Ohio communities, health care organizations and educational institutions. The honorees were recognized for their commitment and efforts toward maintaining and establishing greenery in the region, according to Jennifer Milbrandt, coordinator of natural resources for the City of Strongsville. The event was held at the Strongsville Recreation and Senior Center.

This year is the 50th anniversary of Tree City USA, an annual recognition by the Arbor Day Foundation. The program is designed to raise awareness of the value of community trees, set foundational standards for communities and celebrate community improvement. Ohio has a total of 248 Tree Cities. Strongsville has been a Tree City USA since 1996, meeting all the program’s requirements.

Those standards include: maintaining a tree board or department, having a community tree ordinance, spending at least $2 per capita on urban forestry and participating in Arbor Day celebrations.

“We do some unique programs here. For one, we work with the Strongsville Rotary Club and the Boy Scouts (Scouting America) to bag 600 tree seedlings the day before Arbor Day. The kind varies, but it’s often evergreens,” says Milbrandt, noting that Ohio celebrates Arbor Day the last Friday in April. “Then, on Arbor Day, they are distributed to all the second-graders in the school district, and we talk about the importance of trees in a community. The importance of trees is even part of the students’ curriculum.”

Strongsville also has a street tree cost-sharing program that offers a low-cost tree planting service for residents’ tree lawns.

“People don’t always recognize the connection between health and the tree canopy,” says Milbrandt, referring to the layer of tree branches and leaves that form a roof-like protection, creating shade and other environmental benefits. “Studies have shown that green communities provide health and economic benefits.”