The City of Forest is in the process of replacing and upgrading numerous landscaping features around town. The removal of trees that lined the median of Hwy 35 South is one of the beginning steps of a landscape facelift that is expected to be complete in 2020.
City of Forest officials are currently working with the Mississippi Department of Transportation and a landscape architect as part of the process to change and upgrade the plants, shrubs and trees lining local roads and parking lots. Forest Mayor Nancy Chambers said the city is taking the required steps to complete these landscaping upgrades.
“We are currently working with MDOT to obtain a permit to change some of the landscaping features along the roadways here in Forest,” Chambers said. “We are working with landscape architect Michael Gibson of Madison to create a new landscape program for the city.”
On November 20, city work crews removed the trees along Highway 35 that had stood for 27 years. The trees were originally planted in 1992 as part of the Forest Area Chamber of Commerce’s city beautification project that included the planting of over 6,000 plants, shrubs and trees around town.
In 1992 the Chamber teamed with the City of Forest and former longtime mayor Fred Gaddis in a major city beautification campaign. The chamber committee headed by Dr. Kevin Reynolds initially procured over $13,000 in private donations to start the many projects. The city agreed to provide labor for the construction and long-term maintenance to support the project.
In addition to the trees that lined the median on Hwy 35, the beautification project produced the box planter with “Forest” at the interchange of Hwy 35 and Interstate 20, the parking lot and hand painted mural in downtown forest and extended the street lights along Hwy 35 South to I-20.
In total the project planted more than 6,000 plants, shrubs and trees during the campaign. At that time Chamber President Gene Walker said the project was “one of the most important things our Chamber has done.”
The city facelift that was completed during 1992 and 1993 brought quite a bit of notoriety to the city. Forest was the first city, town or municipality in Mississippi to adopt the interstate interchange area for the purposes of beautification and upkeep. Many other cities and towns quickly followed as planter boxes with the names of cities appeared all over the state’s interstate system.
Forest also received multiple awards for the results of beautification campaign, was nominated for the National Rural Community Award in 1993 and picked as the exhibited city in a Mississippi Urban Forest Council’s training video.
The chambers initial vision for a more beautiful Forest and the execution of the plan working with the City and Gaddis brought great change to the city that will be continued with the new and updated landscaping features being planned.
“We have worked hard to make improvements that benefit everyone in Forest including the new playgrounds and equipment at Gaddis Park and the resurfacing of Highway 80 through Forest,” Chambers said. “The new landscaping plans will be another step that works with the ultimate goal of making our city more beautiful and better for our citizens.”
The removal of the Highway 35 trees is only the first step of the overall Forest landscape facelift that is in the works. The city has applied for a permit with MDOT and is in the initial phase of creating a new landscape program plan. Once the permit is received the city will move forward with creating the final plans for the project.
“The trees that were removed from the median on (Hwy) 35 have been there for may years but many of them have been ran over and replaced many times.” added Chambers. “The years of replacing trees and some trees were obscured road signs that was beginning to cause problems. The city is addressing these issues by taking the steps to replace the removed trees and implement a new landscaping program for the entire city.”
