Earlier this month, the National Park Service (NPS) held an award ceremony to honor and thank all the hard work and dedication of their volunteers.

With over 150 volunteers and more than 400 hours donated, Casey Trees was awarded the Group Volunteer of the Year Award. James Pierce, our longtime partner at NPS awarded members of our Technical Services and Research team at the award ceremony. Considering our Education team was awarded the Centennial Volunteer Service Award from NPS last year, it is an honor to have another Casey Trees program honored and recognized.

On Arbor Day 2016, Casey Trees teamed up with NPS’s volunteer program to catalog all trees on the National Mall and Memorial Parks. This herculean effort could only be actualized with the help of our volunteers.  

This award truly belongs to our volunteers.  We recognize all those who measured the grand elms, iconic cherries and every tree in between. Your efforts are the first step in knowing more about our urban forest – because we can’t manage what we don’t know. 

In honor of Veteran’s Day this past weekend, we also  wanted to thank our partner at NPS, James Pierce. An army veteran who works with NPS to clean up and improve the National Mall, he is a Purple Heart recipient and an integral part of the Casey Trees’ park inventory project. Without him, we would not be able to do the work that we do.