Given that April is both the month of Earth Day (22nd) and Arbor Day (general the last Friday in April or the 26th in 2013), it seemed fitting to conclude the month with a blog post about those states with the most number of communities that have received the honor of being named a “Tree City, USA” by the Arbor Day Foundation. The following chart shows the rankings as of April 2013 for all 50 states and the District of Columbia. While the District of Columbia is at an obvious disadvantage in sheer number of communities, it can claim a victory as the only jurisdiction with 100% participation.
RANK | STATE | NUMBER | RANK | STATE | NUMBER |
1 | Ohio | 235 | 27 | Montana | 41 |
2 | Wisconsin | 189 | 28 | Massachusetts | 39 |
3 | Florida | 165 | South Carolina | 39 | |
4 | Illinois | 154 | 30 | Arkansas | 38 |
5 | New Jersey | 153 | Tennessee | 38 | |
6 | California | 131 | 32 | Mississippi | 35 |
7 | Georgia | 130 | 33 | South Dakota | 34 |
8 | Michigan | 120 | 34 | Maryland | 33 |
9 | Kansas | 106 | 35 | Kentucky | 31 |
Nebraska | 106 | 36 | Arizona | 24 | |
11 | Pennsylvania | 105 | 37 | Oklahoma | 23 |
12 | Minnesota | 100 | 38 | Maine | 18 |
13 | New York | 95 | 39 | Connecticut | 17 |
14 | Colorado | 91 | 40 | West Virginia | 16 |
15 | Iowa | 88 | 41 | North Dakota | 15 |
16 | Washington | 82 | 42 | Delaware | 13 |
17 | Missouri | 79 | New Mexico | 13 | |
Utah | 79 | 44 | Nevada | 11 | |
19 | Texas | 77 | New Hampshire | 11 | |
20 | North Carolina | 72 | 46 | Louisiana | 9 |
21 | Alabama | 71 | Rhode Island | 9 | |
22 | Idaho | 67 | 48 | Alaska | 8 |
23 | Indiana | 65 | Hawaii | 8 | |
24 | Oregon | 57 | 50 | Vermont | 7 |
25 | Virginia | 55 | 51 | District of Columbia | 1 |
26 | Wyoming | 45 | |||
Source: http://www.arborday.org/programs/treeCityUSA/map.cfm – April 2013 |
I have got to admit that a few of the results surprised me, particularly the low number of participating communities in Vermont – a state that I would have thought would be front and center on such a designation. Kudos to Ohio for leading the nation in this ranking and all those twelve states who can claim 100 or more communities designated as Tree Cities.