PORTSMOUTH – For 26 years in a row, the Arbor Day Foundation has recognized Portsmouth with its Tree City USA Award. For the seventh year, the Foundation has also awarded its Tree Growth Award to the City’s Department of Public Works Urban Forestry staff. City Arborist Supervisor Max Wiater with the City’s Parks and Greenery Division, led by Parks and Greeneries Foreman Corin Hallowell and the Trees & Public Greenery Committee, have helped Portsmouth achieve this distinction and plan to honor the recently retired chair of the Trees & Public Greenery Committee, Peter Loughlin, with this year’s Arbor Day commemoration.
On Friday, April 25, 2025 at 9 a.m., the City will issue the Mayor’s Arbor Day Proclamation in a ceremony at the Loughlin Family Tree Farm off Thaxter Road. The ceremony includes a tree planting and the dedication of a block of pink granite donated by the City as a bench in honor of Peter Loughlin. Loughlin retired from the Committee in January 2025 after 22 years of service as Chair.
Recognizing his service, Mayor McEachern commented at the Dec. 16, 2024 City Council meeting, “Peter has led the Trees & Public Greenery Committee since its inception 22 years ago, having been asked by Mayor Evelyn Sirrell in 2002 to succeed Clotilde Straus who had also served for more than 20 years as volunteer City arborist. Not coincidentally, the Arbor Day Foundation has recognized Portsmouth with its Tree City Award in each year of Peter’s tenure over the past 20-plus years. While I deeply regret accepting your resignation from the Trees & Public Greenery Committee, I know that you have given us the legacy that only trees provide. As it’s said, ‘The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit.’ Future generations will be shaded by Portsmouth’s urban forest, due in no small part to you.”
In a letter announcing the awards to Mayor McEachern, Arbor Day Foundation Chief Executive Dan Lambe said, “Thank you for taking pride in your community by planting, nurturing, and celebrating trees. Your community has demonstrated an outstanding commitment to sustainable urban forest management. Over the last few years, the value and importance of trees has become increasingly clear. Cities and towns across the globe are facing issues with air quality, water resources, personal health and well-being, and energy use. Portsmouth has taken steps to create a brighter, greener future.”
Founded in 1976, Tree City USA is a partnership between the Arbor Day Foundation, the U.S. Forest Service, and the National Association of State Foresters. The award depends on meeting the program’s four requirements: supporting a tree board or department, a tree-care ordinance, an annual community forestry budget of at least two dollars per capita, and an Arbor Day observance and proclamation. The Tree City USA Growth Award recognizes Portsmouth for demonstrating environmental improvement and a higher level of tree care.
Portsmouth earns its long-standing reputation with the Arbor Day Foundation because there are over 15,000 trees in Portsmouth that provide natural beauty, shade, and historic character. City Arborist Supervisor Wiater works with a team of arborists, and the nine-member Trees & Public Greenery Committee chaired by Pat Bagley, to preserve Portsmouth’s urban forest through tree preservation techniques, yearly tree plantings, and inventory management to maintain a diverse urban forest.
For more information about the City’s urban forest and its Tree Protection and Planting guidelines, please visit: portsnh.co/PortsmouthTrees.
CAPTION: On Arbor Day 2024 the City's DPW Urban Forestry team planted a tree in Langdon Park with Councilor Beth Moreau (far right) reading the Arbor Day Proclamation and members of the Trees & Greenery Committee attending, including chair Peter Loughlin, fourth from right.
