The Oregon Department of Forestry announced Talent is this year's Tree City of the Year.

According to officials, one community is chosen yearly from across the state. To be eligible, communities must meet the requirements of the National Arbor Day Foundation for having basic tree-care policies and management in place.

Last year, Talent earned a Growth Award for significant improvements to its urban forestry program. This was the fourth time the City earned this specific award.

“After being devastated by the 2020 wildfire, Talent has rallied as a community, becoming very invested and committed to their urban forest. In the face of traumatic and devastating loss, they still managed to outscore all of our other growth award applicants,” said ODF Urban and Community Assistance Forester Brittany Oxford. “Most notably, they have been mapping their canopy with an equity-informed focus guiding their reforestation efforts. The City is working hard to ensure the historically underserved in Talent are the starting point from which they begin to reforest and recover.”

With help from the Department of Forestry, the City of Talent gained access to inventory software from PlanIt Geo after the fire. City officials inventoried 1,500 street and park trees throughout the community - about one-third of the estimated public trees in Talent.

“This recognition was earned by the hard work of so many dedicated people in Talent, from elected city commissioners, Tree Board, volunteers, and city staff, such as our new Hazard Mitigation Coordinator Mike Oxendine,” said Talent Mayor Darby Ayres-Flood. “It shows the resilience and determination of our town to come back even better than we were before the wildfire.”

Oxendine says he has been helping Talent with hazard tree assessment and removal. He has also been a staff liaison for the Talent Urban Forestry Committee.

“Post-fire grants have allowed us to hire a GIS professional contractor Nikki Hart-Brinkley, who is the owner and principal of Green Top Planning, Development, and Research,” said Oxendine.

“The maps are the basis for our Urban Tree Canopy Assessment. They show that within Talent city limits (total of 851 acres) before the wildfire we had 142 acres of canopy coverage and post-fire we have 104 acres. That’s a drop in tree canopy coverage from 16.7% to 12.3%. That’s roughly a loss of one tree in four,” explained Oxendine.

Talent is also adding to knowledge about tree performance in southern Oregon conditions, reporting data on 10 common urban trees’ growth rates in their community.