2013 “Tree City, USA” state rankings

Source: fosston.com

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.