ANAHEIM, CA (October 30, 2007) - The City of Anaheim reached its goal last week of distributing 3,000 trees during 2007 with the planting of four orange trees at Orange Grove Elementary School, which is the Anaheim City School District’s second new school since 1967.

Just last year, the City celebrated a milestone with the 30,000th tree planted in a courtyard adjacent to City Hall. With the City celebrating its 150th anniversary in 2007, Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle announced in his State of the City Address in January an aggressive goal of planting 3,000 trees during the anniversary year. Prior to this year, Anaheim Public Utilities’ TreePower Program has annually planted an average of 2,100 shade trees.

“TreePower is based on the idea that the right tree, strategically planted in the right place, will create shade for homes and buildings, and reduce energy used for air conditioning,” said Lon Cahill, Anaheim Public Utilities Board chairman. “However, the community benefits from much more than trees and energy savings. We’re pleased to be able to make a difference for the current and future students of Orange Grove Elementary.”

To complement the City’s 150th anniversary, TreePower underwent a program expansion this year in which single-family homes are eligible to receive up to six free trees and are also entitled to one free citrus or avocado tree within program guidelines. Anaheim residents overwhelmingly responded to this promotion, with TreePower delivering an average of 500 trees per month from July through October.

The TreePower Program, a joint energy-efficiency effort of the City’s Utilities and Community Services Departments, offers free shade trees to homes, schools, nonprofit/religious institutions and businesses. Residents can sign up for a free landscape audit, allowing them to receive up to six free shade trees. The landscape audit is designed to help the residents select shade trees that are most suitable for their home’s landscape. Following the audit, TreePower will deliver the trees and planting supplies to the home or organization.

With these shade trees, plus the 30,000 planted in the program’s prior years, air-conditioning costs can be reduced by as much as 10 to 40 percent. At maturity, the trees will save 2.2 million kWhs (or enough energy to power 384 households for a full year), in addition to removing over 186 tons of carbon dioxide annually.

For more information about TreePower and the shade trees, please call 714/491-TREE or visit www.anaheim.net and click on Public Utilities, then TreePower under “The Latest.”

Lon Cahill (left), chairman of the Anaheim Public Utilities Board, assists Orange Grove Elementary third-grader Lindsey Lanuza, with the planting of the City’s 3,000th tree in 2007. Looking on is Jerry Silverman, president of the Anaheim City School District Board of Education.