The City and County of Honolulu’s Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) is proud to announce the continued recognition of our island as a Tree City U.S.A., while simultaneously congratulating our world class Honolulu Botanical Gardens for renewing high-level, international accreditation through ArbNet!
For nearly four and half decades (44 years to be exact), O‘ahu has been recognized as a Tree City U.S.A. by the Arbor Day Foundation for exhibiting an outstanding level of tree care in our urban forests and beyond. This year, O‘ahu also received a Growth Award for continuing to build and invest in our community forestry program.
In addition, the Honolulu Botanical Gardens (HBG) renewed their Level III Accreditation by the ArbNet Arboretum Accreditation Program and Morton Arboretum, for achieving particular standards of professional practices for arboreta and botanical gardens. HBG first received this designation in December 2019.
With over two dozen certified arborists managing 650 acres of botanical garden land, several nurseries, and some 100,000 street and park trees around O‘ahu, DPR’s Division of Urban Forestry (DUF) proudly accepts these awards and recognitions, as it continues to grow and care for our island’s precious trees and plant life!
HBG’s five botanical gardens (Foster, Lili‘uokalani, Ho‘omaluhia, Koko Crater, and Wahiawā) represent four ecological settings, exhibiting over 9,000 kinds of tropical plants from across the world (with an emphasis on Hawai‘i’s rare flora, of course). This allows HBG to fulfill its mission of curating, maintaining, and studying plant life in beautiful settings for the purposes of conservation, education, and recreation. In fact, our largest botanical garden, Ho‘omaluhia, was recently named one of 12 best botanical gardens in the country by Fodor’s Travel!
In addition to cultivating magnificent gardens, HBG’s plant collections and staff expertise have been instrumental in studying, exchanging, and researching plant and environmental-based initiatives for decades. Working with researchers from government and non-profit organizations, these efforts have benefited local and international research of invasive species (such as the coconut rhinoceros beetle and gall wasp), plant diseases (such as rapid ‘ōhi‘a death), pollinator populations (such as the ʻōpeʻapeʻa), and plant propagation.
The botanical gardens are managed by DUF, which was formally established as a result of the Shade Tree Commission in Nov. 1922. For every $1 spent on tree planting and care, our trees provide $3 in benefits. As the only piece of City infrastructure that appreciates in value over time, we recognize the benefit that an abundant and thriving tree population has for our community. Those benefits include, but are certainly not limited to:
- Helping mitigate the impacts of climate change by sequestering and storing carbon
- Filtering the air we breathe
- Providing shade and relief from increasingly hot summers
- Serving as habits for a variety of wildlife
- Intercepting storm water runoff before it enters the ocean
- Reinforcing a sense of community
- Providing other mental and social benefits
The Tree City USA program is sponsored by the Arbor Day Foundation, in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service and the National Association of State Foresters. Founded in 1972, the Arbor Day Foundation has grown to become the largest nonprofit membership organization dedicated to planting trees, with more than one million members, supporters and valued partners. O‘ahu is proud to be part of an incredible network of more than 3,600 Tree City U.S.A. communities nationwide, with a combined population of 155 million people.
The ArbNet Arboretum Accreditation Program is the only global initiative to officially recognize arboreta at four accreditation levels of development, capacity, and professionalism. The Honolulu Botanical Gardens are recognized as an accredited arboretum in the Morton Register of Arboreta, a database of the world’s arboreta and gardens dedicated to woody plants.
If you need an auxiliary aid/service, other accommodations due to a disability, or an interpreter for a language other than English in reference to this announcement, please contact the Honolulu Department of Parks and Recreation at (808) 768-3003 on weekdays from 7:45 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. or email parks@honolulu.gov at least three business days before the scheduled event. Without sufficient advanced notice, it may not be possible to fulfill requests.
—PAU—
Follow the Honolulu Department of Parks and Recreation, Division of Urban Forestry on social media:
Instagram: @oahutrees Facebook: facebook.com/OahuTrees1 Website: bit.ly/exceptionaltrees
