The 2004 State Arbor Day Event at Hoff’s Park, Haddon
Heights, NJ
 The
site for this year’s Arbor Day ceremony is Hoff’s
Park in Haddon Heights, Camden County, NJ. This year New Jersey
will be celebrating its 55th anniversary of Arbor Day. Since
1949, the New Jersey State Legislature has designated the
last Friday in April as Arbor Day with the New Jersey Forest
Service taking the role as planners of the event. This free
event is rain or shine.
Community Forestry insures more livable communities through
the care and maintenance of trees. Hoff’s Park in Haddon
Heights was chosen for the NJ State Arbor Day Celebration
because Haddon Heights, which has a Community Forestry Management
Plan and an active Shade Tree Commission, recognized the opportunity
to demonstrate the enhancement of a community resource and
public safety. Arbor Day will focus on managing a community
wood lot – hazardous tree removal, pruning, maintenance,
and restoration of a four-acre site, and converting the area
into an outdoor classroom for use by the adjacent elementary
school. Haddon Heights through the Green Acres Program acquired
this parcel.
During the ceremony, awards will be given out to this year’s
25th, 20th, and 1st year recipients of the Tree City USA Award.
The Tree City USA program is sponsored
by the National Arbor Day
Foundation and the National Association of State Foresters.
The program recognizes cities, counties, and military bases
that have developed comprehensive tree management programs,
and helps make us all more aware of community tree planting
and tree care activities. New Jersey currently leads the Northeast
with its 131 Tree City USA communities and is ranked sixth
in the nation.
In addition to recognizing the Tree City USA winners, the
New Jersey Forest Service will also present awards to the
Tree Line USA Recipients and winners of the 2004 Arbor Day
Calendar Art Contest for Kindergarten through High School
students. Also this year, the recipients of the Joyce Kilmer
Award for outstanding contributions to community forests will
be recognized.
Partners in the Arbor Day event will include:
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