Wayzata Resident Wins Volunteer Service Award from Minnesota Community Forestry

Wayzata resident Ron Anderson has been awarded the prestigious Volunteer Service Award by the Minnesota Community Forestry Awards for his work on the Bushaway Taskforce tree preservation project. Anderson, along with Wayzata Councilmember Jack Amdal and taskforce members Merrily Borg Babcock and Kristen Eide-Tollefson, were recognized at the Minnesota Shade Tree Course on March 13.

The Bushaway Taskforce was a city initiated taskforce of community members that worked to minimize the impacts of the proposed new Hennepin County roadway redesign for Bushaway Road on the adjacent properties and the roadway corridor. The taskforce spent over two years working with Hennepin County to modify the proposed design. One of the items the taskforce spent time on was examining ways to reduce the amount of tree loss along the corridor that would result from the roadway project.

“Ron’s nominators singled him out as the driving force. There were others on the taskforce, but he seemed to be the leader,” said Lara Newberger, forestry technician for the City of Plymouth, who presented the award. “He was a great resource for the taskforce.”

In his nomination letter, Councilmember Jack Amdal wrote that Anderson went beyond just attending the weekly meetings with Hennepin County. Anderson “walked the corridor, taking photographs of trees and existing conditions. With photographs and the County’s tree inventory in hand, Ron and an arborist hired by the neighbors developed a tree preservation plan. The County’s initial plans called for the loss of over 700 trees. Following Ron’s work on the tree preservation plan, the total loss is now just over 200 trees.”

The Minnesota Community Forestry Awards recognize individuals and organizations that have contributed to community forestry and arboriculture. The awards are a combination of the Minnesota Society of Arboriculture and the Minnesota Shade Tree Advisory Committee.

“All that pass through the Bushaway Road corridor in the future need only to thank Ronald E. Anderson, “ wrote Councilmember Amdal. “For it was his quiet persistence and passion for this corridor that has shaped its future.”