This award is given to a governmental agency, institution or green industry partner, that has worked to advance legislation, regulation or practices favorable to the tree care industry.
Nominations for the Advancing Arboriculture Award are made by the TCIA staff and the Board of Directors of the TCIA. The recipient is honored at TCIA’s annual Winter Management Conference.
Current winner
2013 Advancing Arboriculture Award
Sandy Clark’s determination, honesty and exemplary work effort have gotten her through over three decades of service to the Village of Mount Prospect, Illinois. Not only has she developed a progressive municipal forestry and landscape maintenance program in Mount Prospect, but her program is highly regarded throughout Illinois.
She initiated the first innovative tree risk management program, to increase public safety while still preserving as many older trees as possible. She directed an intensive tree disease/insect control effort, drastically reducing the annual elm loss rate.
Mount Prospect boasts over 200 different tree species and cultivars. It’s forestry program, which includes pruning each tree one and three years after planting, and every five years thereafter, has been carried out for over 25 years.
Mount Prospect’s bid documents for tree maintenance are very thorough. They focus on professionalism, including TCIA Accreditation. Many municipal foresters follow her lead when writing these documents.
As Forester, she manages nearly 25,000 street trees and 42 acres of public grounds. She is a direct supervisor to a staff of 13 (9 Forestry and 4 Grounds personnel). In spite of budget limitations, she ensures that they continually attend both formal and in-house training programs in all aspects of arboriculture, landscaping and safety. All of her forestry staff are certified arborists.
A longtime member of the ISA, a certified arborist since 1990 and municipal specialist since 2008, Sandy is a past board member of the Illinois Arborist Association (IAA) and a current member of the Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) Municipal Team that contributes to a regional solution to Illinois’ EAB problem. She has received a Gold Leaf Award from the International Society of Arboriculture, Honorary Life Membership with the Illinois Arborist Association and an Exceptional Performance in Journalism Award from the American Public Works Association.
Under Sandy’s tenure, Mount Prospect has been the recipient of the National Arbor Day Foundation’s Tree City USA Award annually since 1985, and the Growth Award eight times since 1992. Mount Prospect received the Lady Bird Johnson Award for the beautification of our railroad right-of-way and has been accredited by the Society of Municipal Arborists since 1995.
Forester... mentor... leader... creator... researcher... defender of trees for more than 30 years. Sandy Clark represents a worthy recipient of TCIA’s Advancing Arboriculture Award.
Past winners
Review our archive of past Advancing Arboriculture award winners.
