Maple Ridge is a beautiful place.
Anyone who lives here knows that.
Now, so does the rest of Canada after the City of Maple Ridge won the nationwide Communities in Bloom contest.
The annual competition has judges tour cities across Canada to find which has the most beautiful natural settings.
Maple Ridge won the competition this year, receiving five blooms, and a special mention for the way it treats its trees, in the population of more than 50,000 category.
“The city treasures its trees and has designed a comprehensive urban forest maintenance plan to improve and develop a system to manage the urban forestry consisting of street and park trees and green space corridors,” said the judges.
Maple Ridge’s inventory of urban trees and its integration of its trees into its other initiatives were also mentioned.
The development of an urban forestry operations program and guidelines to protect the urban forest canopy were also listed.
Judges looked at tidiness, environmental action, heritage conservation, urban trees, landscaping and floral displays when evaluating participating cities.
“Communities involved in the program can be proud of their efforts, which provide real and meaningful environmental solutions and benefit all society,” said a release from Communities in Bloom.