EXPLANATION OF AWARDS: 

          Tree City USA:  Minimum requirements: a tree board; tree ordinance; tree awareness/planting/pruning; hazardous tree removal, and participation in Arbor Day.   A municipality can receive this award in spite of massive loss of irreplaceable, native tree canopy. 

          Scenic City USA:   Requirements:  trees and landscaping along major roadways, city streets, street medians and in parking lots; prohibition on new off-premises signage (billboards); c) permitting process and height/size requirements for on-premises signage.  This does not consider loss to native tree canopy.  

UNIQUE ATTRIBUTES OF FLOWER MOUND

       Post Oaks:  Irreplaceable, usually grow 1 inch every 7 years; live up to 500+ years, sensitive to grading.  Replanting other trees does not re-establish native wildlife, who are known as "specialists".  The loss of trees, and replanting with landscaping trees, tend to attract "generalists" who do not require specific habitat, such a pigeons, grackles, starlings, English house sparrows, and rodents which are common in urban areas and parking lots.

       Native Tree Canopy:  In the Cross Timbers Conservation Development District this results in 3 degree cooler temperatures. Flower Mound is one of few areas with some preserved strands.

       Situated in the middle of a major migratory bird path between South American and Canada, and in the middle of intra-US migration.  Texas is a World Birding Center and receives billions on eco-tourism.  

       Mentioned in "The Cast Iron Forest:  A Natural and Cultural History of The North American Cross Timbers" by Richard V. Francaviglia, a speaker at the Flower Mound Symposiums during the DeLuca Administration.

MUNICIPAL SEWER VERSUS ON-SITE

       Developers will pay for some of the initial infrastructure and pay the wastewater impact fee, which will be passed on to the future homeowners who will pay for the infrastructure and maintenance via user fees.  Sewer facilitates dense/commercial development and requires removal of trees and other natural assets. 

       With a septic system, each homeowner pays to maintain their own system. Aerobic systems require less land than septic but are more expensive, rely on power, and should not spray directly on trees.

       Prohibiting municipal sewer in the Cross Timbers Conservation Development District has helped preserve the area, and is a common planning tool throughout the U.S.