News and Events

February 18, 2023

Front Yard Tree Program takes root in Brookhaven

Back by popular demand, Brookhaven is once again partnering with Trees Atlanta to sponsor the Front Yard Tree Program. Currently, the number of trees the city has approved for planting is far from being maximized – please take advantage of this program and let your friends and neighbors know about it!

In this partnership, Trees Atlanta will plant up to 80 trees. Homeowners can choose one of five varieties of White oak, Overcup oak, Willow oak, River Birch and Sycamore, all between six and eight feet in height. Trees Atlanta will plant the tree and provide the initial mulching and watering and include a two-year replacement guarantee.

Beginning immediately, residents can apply at www.treesatlanta.org/yardtree and select “Brookhaven,” while quantities last. Continuing last year’s promotion, there is no application fee for Brookhaven residents.

More info here.

Volunteer Opportunities in Brookhaven Parks

Join your friends and neighbors to restore greenspace, enjoy the outdoors and learn about nature through volunteering with EcoAddendum. See a list of upcoming events and sign up online: https://www.ecoaddendum.org/

October 25, 2022

Brookhaven City Council Meeting 10/25/22 7:00 p.m.

At tonight's Brookhaven City Council meeting, they will discussed proposed changes to the tree ordinance. The agenda and more information can be found online. The Brookhaven Tree Conservancy has sent questions to the City.

The Brookhaven Tree Conservancy encourages interested members to join in person (City Hall – Peachtree: 4362 Peachtree Road, Brookhaven, GA 30319) or online via Zoom (link below).

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84116014300

US: +1 301 715 8592 or +1 309 205 3325 or +1 312 626 6799 or +1 646 931 3860 or +1 929 436 2866 or +1 564 217 2000 or +1 669 444 9171 or +1 669 900

Webinar ID: 841 1601 43005.

Meeting can be viewed at www.brookhavenga.gov and www.facebook.com/brookhavengagov.

If participating in Public Comment in Zoom: Please email City at publiccomment@brookhavenga.gov and give your phone number, name, and address so you can be recognized and the City can accept your phone number in Zoom.

June 29, 2021

City Council Unanimously Votes to Approve New Tree Ordinance

Tonight the Brookhaven City Council unanimously voted to approve the new tree protection ordinance. Many thanks go out to everyone who helped advocate for this change - including the members of the Brookhaven Tree Conservancy, and many thanks to our City Council and the City's staff for taking this step to protect Brookhaven's tree canopy. The new ordinance goes into effect immediately for all new tree removal permits. The Reporter Newspapers covered the story as did the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

June 27, 2021

Brookhaven City Council Vote on Tree Ordinance

The Brookhaven City Council is voting on the Tree Ordinance Rewrite on Tuesday, June 29, 2021 at the Regular Meeting at 7:00 p.m. You can watch the meeting by going to the City website: www.brookhavenga.gov. Before the meeting, however, we request that you contact your City Council Person to encourage them to vote for this important piece of legislation. For more information including City Council contact information and a sample letter, please see our Get Involved page.

May 5, 2021

Brookhaven Planning Commission Working Session on May 5, 2021

The City of Brookhaven Planning Commission has a tree protection ordinance working session on Wednesday, May 5 at 5:30 p.m. Concerned citizens are urged to send an email to the Planning Commission to advocate for a stronger tree ordinance. The Brookhaven Tree Conservancy has prepared recommendations, listed on our Get Involved page.

May 2, 2021

Brookhaven Tree Conservancy Virtual Meeting on May 2, 2021

Please join the Brookhaven Tree Conservancy for a virtual meeting on May 2, 2021 from 4:00-5:00 PM. The goal of this meeting is to ensure BTC members are ready to provide feedback to the City Planning Commission for the City's Tree Ordinance Rewrite. The Planning Commission Work Session is on May 5, 2021. The draft ordinance can be found at https://brookhavenga.mysocialpinpoint.com/tree-ordinance-rewrite

Our agenda includes:

Proposed Vision for Climate Remediation
Tree ordinance rewrite timeline
Elements of the draft ordinance that need strengthening
New conditions that need to be added to the draft ordinance
Q & A

February 11, 2021

Presentation from Brookhaven Tree Conservancy Meeting

On February 11, 2021, the Brookhaven Tree Conservancy held a Zoom meeting that focused on steps citizens can take now to advocate for a stronger tree protection ordinance in Brookhaven. Click here to view the presentation from the meeting and see the timeline for submitting public input to the City of Brookhaven, or click below to view a recording of the meeting.

February 1, 2021

Brookhaven Tree Conservancy Virtual Meeting on February 11, 2021

Please join the Brookhaven Tree Conservancy for a virtual meeting on February 11, 2021 from 7:30-8:30 PM. The goal of this meeting is to ensure BTC members are ready to participate in the public information session for the City's Tree Ordinance Rewrite on February 24, 2021.

Our agenda includes:

Progress to date
Tree ordinance rewrite timeline
Metrics on Brookhaven tree canopy loss
Cost of tree loss and impervious surface growth
Framework for tree ordinance modifications
Key points for feedback sessions
How you can help

Georgia Native Plant Society Symposium on February 27 and 28, 2021
Georgia Audubon is thrilled to be partnering with the Georgia Native Plant Society (GNPS) to co-host the 2021 Symposium. This year’s event will be a virtual event featuring a terrific lineup of speakers. Click here for more information.

September 12, 2020

Brookhaven Tree Protection Ordinance Rewrite Update

The City of Brookhaven is accepting bids from consultants through October 13, 2020. The RFP has extensive requirements for citizen input with meetings and website. Visit the City of Brookhaven website for the RFP.

Brookhaven Tree Canopy Study

The 2020 Tree Canopy Study was presented to the City Council in June. The Tree Canopy Study showed an overall 4% loss of canopy from 2009 through 2019. However, the tree loss in the single-family housing zoning category was 5%. Looking at comparisons for 2017 through 2019 the tree loss was 8% for single-family housing zoning. These losses are unsustainable, regardless of zoning.

Webinar: Nature's Best Hope with Doug Tallamy

Thursday, September 17, 2020 at 7:00 p.m.

Georgia Audubon is thrilled to welcome award-winning author and entomologist Doug Tallamy for a webinar on the evening of September 17. Author of the newly released New York Times’ bestseller, Nature’s Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation that Starts in Your Yard, this is an amazing opportunity to hear Doug’s message of hope and to learn how we all can be part of the solution to address declining biodiversity and save birds, too. Learn more and purchase tickets here.

Brookhaven Joined the One Million Trees Initiative

The One Million Trees Initiative is an exciting collaboration of 10 metro Atlanta cities and 10 Atlanta-based nonprofits working together to fight local climate change and environmental stresses from urban growth. With combined efforts, our goal is to plant and save one million trees across metro Atlanta by 2030. Learn more about this effort and how you can help here.

February 20, 2020

The Trees Atlanta Canopy Conference is on February 20, and you are invited to join to discuss how urban trees can fight climate change. Opening and closing the conference will be President of the Arbor Day Foundation, Dan Lambe, along with David Nowak, Senior Scientist from the US Forest Service and one of the developers of iTree.

For more information and to register, please visit the Trees Atlanta website.

December 12, 2019

The Grand Opening of the Peachtree Creek Greenway will include a Bike Parade. From the Brookhaven Bike Alliance:

"The Brookhaven Bike Alliance would like to invite you all to ride with us to the event next Thursday December 12th. We meet at 10:15 a.m. at the Brookhaven MARTA station (back parking lot on Apple Valley).

The police will escort us and the parade is a great way to voice our desire to the city to be able to bike to the Peachtree Creek Greenway and other parks.

More information on our Facebook event page. Or join the Brookhaven Bike Alliance Facebook group for updates on bike infrastructure in Brookhaven and surroundings."

November 1, 2019

Brookhaven Tree Conservancy’s Sandy Murray was quoted in an article in the Brookhaven Reporter (“In a building boom, Brookhaven ponders how to save trees”).

November 1, 2019

11Alive's Jeff Hullinger published a Facebook story on the history of Brookhaven's Silver Lake.

October 29, 2019

The Brookhaven Tree Conservancy held a meeting at 7:00 p.m. at Ashford Park. The meeting notes are below.

Brookhaven Tree Conservancy Update October 29, 2019

Thank you everyone for coming out to the Brookhaven Tree Conservancy meeting last night. Many thanks for the support given by the Mayor and Councilman Park. They have directed city staff to work with us over the past year and provided all requested materials. Because we are all volunteers and have competing schedules, we have not made progress as fast as we would have liked. However, we have reached a critical juncture in the process and working together we will overhaul the tree ordinance in a sustainable way. These ideas have never been tried so it will take much review and public input to put in place a permanent solution that fits with the storm water and zoning ordinances. The new ordinance will have the highest impact in saving and growing our tree canopy and withstand a potential legal challenge.

For those that did not make it, here is an update of our progress to re-write the tree ordinance. We have multiple efforts in parallel to implement our four-step plan.

The city just put out to bid a tree canopy study with input from Kathryn Kolb and the Brookhaven Tree Conservancy. This along with targeted “ground truthing” will be one of many metrics evaluated for the re-write.
We have tested the Tree value Matrix with the city arborist 3 times, and we have confirmed that the tree value matrix results are consistent with the arborist’s opinion of high value trees. A mobile app will be available soon.
Based on provided site plans, the Brookhaven Tree Conservancy and city staff are in the process of assembling metrics on tree and impervious surface loss on 60 specific properties. This should be complete in time for the RFP for the tree ordinance re-write.
The tree ordinance re-write project will be put out to bid after the holidays. The city will hire consultants to engage the community and bring together our four-step plan into a unified ordinance.
We are meeting with the city this week to launch the education and enablement plan.
The Brookhaven Tree Conservancy website has been developed and launched. You can get updates, provide feedback, and contact us at https://www.brookhaventreeconservancy.org/. Please sign up here if you would like to volunteer.
We have established a marketing, communication, and publicity arm to better update everyone more quickly.

The formation of the following committees was announced:

Education
Community Relations
Marketing/Communications/Publicity
Ordinance Rewrite Sessions