LAKEWOOD, Ohio - Even though fall is in full swing with the leaves falling, Lakewood officials are taking advantage of the good weather to plant new trees. Keep Lakewood Beautiful and the city of Lakewood last month teamed up for a fall event with the planting of two trees and mulching of roughly 20 others in Lakewood Park.

"Trees are an integral part of an urban infrastructure by offering not only aesthetic but also environmental and economic benefits," Keep Lakewood Beautiful Volunteer Board Member Marianne Quasebarth Usiak said.

"We're helping to let people know this is important to support the overall goal of increasing the city's tree canopy. Letting residents know how to take care of trees they have and/or plant new ones is an important foundation to this goal."

Lakewood Arborist Chris Perry, who is also the city division manager for streets and forestry, said there are usually two similarly-minded events a year. Overall, both provide residents with an education and question-and-answer opportunity about protecting the urban canopy.

"We recently had nine volunteers attend," Perry said. "It was a wet and cold day. We usually get a larger group. Keep Lakewood Beautiful does at least two tree-related events per year with a popular spring Earth Day/Arbor Day having between 30 and 40 people."

For the recent Lakewood Park affair, Perry said one tree was donated, while the city paid $200 for another tree and $120 for five yards of mulch.

Overall, Lakewood annually budgets $130,000 towards urban forestry. Overseeing the program are four full-time arborists responsible for managing roughly 10,000 trees located on public land, which includes tree lawns and parks.

Previously, Lakewood Mayor Mike Summers estimated there are currently 1,200 spaces on public land where a tree is needed. The city annually plants 300 saplings with 100 earmarked for new locations with the remaining managing and pruning existing foliage.

Perry said overall Lakewood's tree population is good and trending in the right direction.

"Like all old inner-ring communities, our urban forest is in a major state of transition with many large mature trees declining and having to be removed, but with an aggressive and well-thought out replacement planting program and strategy," Perry said.

"We want to plant a diverse population of trees. One tree for each removal and at least 10 percent of the vacant viable planting sites identified and inventoried at the beginning of each year. There's no annual net loss of tree planting versus tree removals ever."