What’s up Lakeland, are you ready to par-tree? 😉 The City of Lakeland was awarded Level 1 Accreditation by ArbNet Accreditation Program + you can now track your favorite trees on a new GPS enabled map of Lake Morton.

Quoteworthy: “The ArbNet Arboretum Accreditation Program is the only global initiative to officially recognize arboreta at various levels of development, capacity, and professionalism. The City of Lakeland Arboretum is also now recognized as an accredited arboretum in the Morton Register of Arboreta, a database of the world’s arboreta and gardens dedicated to woody plants.” - City of Lakeland

With all of the beautiful trees in the area and the recent accolades, it’s no surprise that Lakelanders now have the opportunity to track and learn about your favorite trees peppered up + down Lake Morton with this new GPS enabled map. 🗺️

This feature was created with a little help from the City GIS team and LAL’s arborist aficionados. Every single tree around the lake has been tagged with descriptions and photographs and is available for the public to view as the “Lake Morton Flowering Tree Collection.” 🌳

It’s no surprise that Lakeland’s tree population (56,000 trees and counting) gets a special shout out + a new mapping system. Who doesn’t love a good tree, right?

A noteworthy tree to keep an eye out for while strolling Lake Morton is the Mucronatum or Montezuma Cypress, which is number 16 on the list of trees and is located between E. Palmetto Street and Mississippi Avenue on Lake Morton Drive.

To access the technology, walkers at Lake Morton can simply whip out their mobile phone, find a tree of their liking, access the site here + learn. If walking isn’t your thing, you can view all of the trees with a birdseye view from your desktop and click to learn. 🤓

Poll