Read more about local beautification efforts in the June/July 2025 feature story.
Trees play a critical role in improving an area’s environment and quality of life, and Evansville understands this — the city was designated a Tree City USA by the Arbor Day Foundation in 2001. To promote urban treescapes, officials created the Evansville Forest Alliance in 2024 to enhance urban environment by planting trees in underserved and low-income areas. Backed by a $249,000 grant awarded by the state through the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, the alliance —which works with the city’s Tree Advisory Board — planted a total of 29 trees in the Tepe Park and Goosetown Park neighborhoods in November 2024.
“The easiest way to make a city more appealing is with tree canopies,” says Mike Schopmeyer, a longtime member of the Tree Advisory Board as well as Keep Evansville Beautiful. Although the board can’t dictate what grows or gets planted on private property, he says it can educate residents on best tree practices.
Schopmeyer says that in addition to their beautification benefits, tree canopies also reduce heat at ground level and by acting as a “vacuum cleaner” for carbon dioxide, which is of course harmful to humans at high levels.
City Arborist Shawn Dickerson says the board and forest alliance invest in education to warn of the dangers of “topping” — the practice of pruning trees incorrectly that damages them while leaving them unattractive — and encourage residents to plant trees on their own property.
Dickerson says the city’s goal is to plant two trees for every one removed on public land, but the forest alliance has been planting closer to a 3:1 ratio.
The increase in the number of trees in a community boosts its curb appeal not just for residents but also companies that might be considering Evansville as a place to locate their business.
“They look for attractive communities,” Dickerson says. “They know where their workforce wants to live.”
