Mission

To passionately provide excellent tree care to the Citizens of Billings, Montana by helping make our Urban Forest in our parks and public spaces healthier and safer.

Summary

The City of Billings Urban Forestry team is charged with managing Billings 9,400 trees in Parks, Golf Courses, Cemeteries and other public places as well as vegetation on 1,400 acres managed as “natural areas.”

It is our goal to make Billings Park trees as safe and sustainable as possible by pruning trees on a cyclical basis and diversifying tree species throughout Billings.  It is the objective of the forestry team to prune 827 small trees and 880 large trees per year.  Following this schedule, each small Park tree will be pruned every 3 years and every large tree pruned every 7 years.

The Urban Forestry staff includes a City Forester and an Arborist working year-round, and several seasonal Forestry Technicians working spring through fall.

Tree City USA

Billings has been a Tree City USA for 34 years

2020 was Billings 36th year as a Tree City USA

To be recognized as a Tree City USA a community must meet 4 requirements:

  1. Have a Tree Board or Department to manage City trees
  2. Have an Ordinance addressing trees in the community
  3. Have a program with a Budget of at least $2/capita
  4. Celebrate Arbor Day each year

About the ARBOR DAY FOUNDATION:  Founded in 1972, the Arbor Day Foundation has grown to become the largest nonprofit membership organization dedicated to planting trees, with more than one million members, supporters, and valued partners. During the last 45 years, more than 250 million Arbor Day Foundation trees have been planted in neighborhoods, communities, cities and forests throughout the world.

For more information on the Tree City USA Program visit the Arbor Day Foundation

Quick Forestry Facts

  • Billings has approximately 10,000 trees in developed parks.
  • Ash species account for 23% of Billings Park tree canopy, Blue Spruce 16%, and Cottonwood 7%.
  • Billings Parks has a young to medium aged urban forest.
  • The trees of Billings Parks are worth almost 28 million dollars.
  • Each citizen in Billings receives $9.90 each year in environmental benefits from Park trees.
  • The average tree in Billings Parks provides $123.73 in environmental benefits each year.
  • Billings residents receive over a million dollars in environmental benefits each year from park trees.