Hamilton Award: In recognition of a Tree Warden who has significantly advanced the goals of urban and community forestry through successful forestry practices, effective conservation planning, increased citizen engagement, and active public education. This award is in honor of Dr. Larry Hamilton, the former Tree Warden in Charlotte, and is limited to Tree Wardens.

This year, the Hamilton Award honors and celebrates Paul Cate, East Montpelier’s tree warden from 1994 – 2026. A lifelong forester and timber harvester, Paul stepped into municipal community service in the 1980s as a member of the East Montpelier town forest committee. He later accepted the tree warden position as town forest management began to integrate with community tree planting and school garden projects. From timber sales in the town forest to roadside ash tree management with the Resilient Roads Committee, Paul and many fellow municipal volunteers have elevated the role of community tree care through partnerships with municipal road crews, local schools, and nearby nature centers.

Part forester, part teacher, and part mediator, Paul approaches his civic duties as tree warden with an eye for education and shared empathy. Often called in by the road foreman to speak to landowners about right-of-way tree care and maintenance, Paul brings his knowledge of trees and forestry alongside his wish to transform adversarial situations into shared understanding. Learning why tree care and removals need to happen is often the first step in management of shared forests along roadsides and in public spaces.

Said Paul of his civic work in East Montpelier, “When you’re building community, [a project] is not something that is done for people. You have to have to have your own equity in it. That’s how you build a community that can cooperate when they need to.”

Leader Award: An individual who, through services to their community or organization, has shown leadership and dedication in carrying out an urban or community forestry effort. 

Gail is a landscape architect and founding member of the Shelburne Tree Committee, where she has served as Chair for over a decade. Under her steady and dedicated leadership, the Committee has become an active and inspiring force in the community, promoting tree diversification, ensuring tree health, advancing public education, and tackling the significant challenge of Emerald Ash Borer management head-on. Her EAB Management Program has become a model for surrounding towns, and her work helped Shelburne earn Tree City USA status for eight consecutive years, alongside securing meaningful grants to support the town's ongoing tree work.

What makes Gail exceptional, though, goes beyond her impressive resume of accomplishments. Nominators describe her as always present, always involved, and always ready to take on more, whether at a Select Board meeting, a tree planting in a public space, or a quiet planning session behind the scenes. She brings knowledge, patience, and a calm, pleasant energy that elevates everyone around her. As one nominator put it, her ability to foster thoughtful collaboration, balancing different perspectives and keeping the group grounded, has made her an invaluable partner to her fellow committee members and the Town of Shelburne alike.

Gail's decade-plus of tireless service reflects the very best of what a community tree steward can be: knowledgeable, generous, and deeply committed to the long-term health of the places we share.

Unsung Hero Award: An individual and/or group who work(s) behind the scenes and consistently goes above and beyond to make a difference in their community's urban and community forest.

When Becky returned to her family home in North Bennington in 2017, she was struck by the condition of the local woodlands, shrub and vine invasive species, deer overbrowsing, and a steep regional decline in bird populations had taken a serious toll on the forest. Rather than look away, she got to work. Becky developed a comprehensive ecosystem resilience plan and partnered with a forester and community members to create a ten-year conservation plan now stewarded by The Fund for North Bennington. Five years in, the results speak for themselves: over 1,000 native trees and shrubs planted, forest-edge invasive species mulched and managed, a rainwater collection system to support plantings through drought, and wildlife documented through field cameras. She also inspired a local farmer to manage thirty grassland acres as a seasonal preserve for ground-nesting birds and the bobolink population has increased tenfold since. Beyond the land itself, Becky has built a movement: organizing community talks and wildflower walks, introducing neighbors to the Merlin bird-identification app, welcoming school groups and summer camps, coordinating college ecology research, and linking the project to the Bennington Master Gardeners. She secured funding from federal programs, nursery donations, and nonprofit grants to keep the work going. Becky has never sought the spotlight, but her quiet, determined leadership has made North Bennington's woodlands measurably healthier and its community measurably more connected to the natural world around them.

Volunteer Group/Community Award: An organization, team or ad/hoc group, or community who, through their efforts, have shown outstanding dedication and commitment in introducing or sustaining an urban & community forestry project within their community.

Arbor Day: UCF staff award.

Jordan St. Onge's job description doesn't require him to care this much about trees, but that hasn't stopped him. As Morristown's Highway Superintendent, Jordan has become an indispensable partner to the Vermont Urban & Community Forestry Program, showing up with exactly the right equipment, expertise, and enthusiasm at exactly the right moment. When a major tree planting at the Morristown Public Library, part of UCF's Check Out Forestry program, hit a snag with a very large, very sideways birch tree lodged in its planting hole, Jordan arrived within five minutes with a skid steer and set things right. That same project wouldn't have been possible without Jordan and his crew, who also scraped away hundreds of square feet of sod to make room for an edible hedgerow and a small apple orchard, and delivered homemade compost produced from leaves collected around town. And that's just one story. Jordan has also collaborated on the design and will lead the heavy lifting of tearing out thousands of square feet of downtown Morrisville pavement to install new street trees, work made possible through another Vermont UCF grant. None of this is in his job description. All of it reflects a genuine commitment to his community and its urban forest. The trees that now grow, and will grow, because of Jordan's partnership will repay his generosity many times over.