About Austin Tree of the Year Awards
History
The Austin Tree of the Year Awards (TOTY) were created in March of 2007 to recognize outstanding trees within the city limits of Austin. This recognition and celebration of beautiful and healthy trees provided Austinites with examples of proper tree selection, care and placement, and fostered Austin’s long standing community support of its urban forest. The program initially recognized only large trees, then expanded to include a small tree category, and in 2010 added a category for “Community Trees.” The original program ran until 2013.
Now, almost 10 years later, we are bringing back the Tree of the Year awards with 5 categories, and you get to decide the winners!
Tree ID Resources
Seek by iNaturalist
Use Seek by iNaturalist, a user-friendly app with image recognition technology, to help identify the trees and wildlife around you. This is a great app to use on-the-go when exploring your urban forest and nominating your favorite trees! You can download Seek here.
1976 Austin Tree Registry
Margret Hofmann, also known as the “Austin Tree Lady,” was a trailblazer dedicated to protecting Austin’s trees and led the establishment of the city’s first tree registry. You can view the 1976 Tree Registry here.
The Arbor Day Foundation’s What Tree Is That? Tool
As one of the nation’s leaders in forestry and tree preservation, the Arbor Day Foundation has a great tool for folks with little-to-no tree knowledge to be able to identify a tree. You can find What Tree Is That? here.
Native Tree Growing Guide for Central Texas
Created by Austin Energy, The Austin Climate Protection Program, and TreeFolks, the Native Tree Growing Guide for Central Texas is a great resource for caring for and identifying trees native to Central Texas. You can view it here.
Partners and Supporters
The relaunch of the Austin Tree of the Year Awards (TOTY) would not be possible without the dedication, support, and collaboration of the Still Water Foundation, City of Austin Parks and Recreation, TreeFolks, Page 33 Studio, and Harvest Lumber Co. Each and every Tree of the Year contributor is excited to bring this program back to life after nearly 10 years!
