Apache Corporation and CenterPoint Energy are recipients of Missouri City’s “Golden Tree” awards for their significant “green” contributions to the City. Urban Forester Paul Wierzbicki presented the awards during the recent City Council meeting.
From bottom: Ken Lindsey, Diane Hasell and Ron Britt, of CenterPoint Energy, and at top, Obie O’Brien, of Apache Corp., and Missouri City Urban Forester Paul Wierzbicki following the presentation of the Golden Tree Awards. Wierzbicki presented them to the two companies for their significant contributions to help Missouri City “go green.” Photo courtesy of Missouri City.
“Every once in a while, a business goes the extra mile to show extraordinary efforts to contribute to helping sustain the environment,” Wierzbicki said. “The Golden Tree Award was established to recognize outstanding businesses that make these kinds of contributions to our City.”
CenterPoint Energy partnered with Missouri City to create “Right Tree Trail” in Ridgeview Park, the first of its kind in the area. CenterPoint contributed 33 trees for the Trail and two instructive panels that demonstrate the types of trees that will not grow into power lines.
Mayor Allen Owen pointed out that during Hurricane Ike in 2008 “approximately 90 percent of the outages in the city were due to tree limbs and trees falling into power lines. CenterPoint is helping educate people on the types of trees to plant in their backyards that will not contribute to that problem.”
Apache Corporation received a Golden Tree Award for its contribution of 670 tree seedlings to the City over a three-year period. The seedlings were used in reforestation and volunteer projects at Sta-Mo, Buffalo Run and Independence Parks. In total, Apache Corporation has donated more than 1.6 million trees nationwide.
