Jamestown Mayor Kim Ecklund, Everwild Land Trust Conservation Director Twan Leenders, Joan P. Shevory Citizen Forester Award recipient Mary Laird, and Chautauqua Region Community Foundation Executive Director Tory Irgang plant trees on the Greater Jamestown Riverwalk (October 20, 2026)
The City of Jamestown celebrated 45 years of its Tree City USA designation with the planting of five trees on the Greater Jamestown Riverwalk.
Jamestown Parks Manager Dan Stone said that three Red Sunset Maples have been planted on the north shore of Riverwalk just below the Comedy Center. Two Snow Cloud Service Berry trees will be placed in concrete planters on the southside of the basin near the Jamestown Board of Public Utilities to support local wildlife.
Stone recognized resident Mary Laird with the Joan P. Shevory Citizen Forester Award. Laird had made a donation through the City’s Urban Forestry Fund that’s managed by the Chautauqua Region Community Foundation. Her donation made the purchase of the trees possible.
There are four core standards that must be met to become a Tree City USA and maintain that status annually. A municipality must have a tree board, which is done through Jamestown’s Parks Commission. The municipality also must have a tree care ordinance, which Stone said was first established in Jamestown in 1981. The third standard is that the municipality must have a Community Forestry Program with an annual budget of at least $2 per capita. The fourth standard is that the municipality must have an Arbor Day observation and proclamation.
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