By Kyle Coppola
Lady Lake Named Tree City USA for 20th Year
LADY LAKE – For the 20th year, Lady Lake has been named a Tree City USA by the Arbor Day Foundation.
To receive the prestigious designation, a Tree City must have a tree board or department, a tree care ordinance, a community forestry program with an annual budget of at least $2 per capita, and an Arbor Day observation and proclamation.
According to Tree City USA, a commitment to trees helps lead to cooler temperatures, cleaner air, higher property values, and healthier residents.
(Snooky Park in Lady Lake was saved in recent years as a nature park honoring a fallen Pearl Harbor Veteran. This is one of many project that Lady Lake has worked on to save trees.)
“It is a great honor to receive Tree City USA designation for the 20th year,” said Parks and Recreation Director Mike Burske. “It represents our dedication to protecting the town’s historic trees and collaborating with residents to plant and nurture new ones, creating a lasting legacy for future generations.”
Together with community partners, Lady Lake plants trees annually at various locations during its Arbor Day celebration every April. In 2024, the town joined Lake County in planting several trees outside Lake County Fire Station 52 in Lady Lake.
(Lady Lake especially Mayor Ed Freeman continues to protect vital Florida Live Oak and many other trees that have faced destruction from development in recent years. Much work has been done to protect them in recent years.)
The Town hosts a tree raffle annually, offering winners $200 gift certificates to purchase trees at a local nursery. The Lady Lake Tree Raffle is made possible by the town’s tree bank, which is funded by developers who are required to donate if they cannot meet the town’s stringent tree code.
The Town’s land development regulations require developers to put money into the town’s tree bank to mitigate any tree loss. This is a way in which the town enforces responsible development and tree conservation.
Kyle Coppola was born in Newton, Massachusetts and received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communications from Curry College in 2016. After traveling to Florida on a family vacation, he decided he could not get enough of the warm weather and made the move from snowy Massachusetts to central Florida 8 years ago.
For the last decade Kyle has gained valuable experience in social media content creation, marketing and sales, writing, video production, sports announcing and even broadcasting for local radio stations, such as FM 102.9 in The Villages and FM 91.5 in Massachusetts. Every year he volunteers at The Villages Charter High School as a play-by-play sports announcer for the football games as well as a public address announcer for the basketball games, including the annual Battle at The Villages Tournament.
Outside the office Kyle is a husband and father to two beautiful girls along with their cat. In his spare time he likes to spend time with his family, travel, play golf and swim. He is also a huge sports junkie and even bigger motorsports fan and loves to attend racing events when he can.
