The sort of like, you know, fight between northeast Johnson County cities, like, see who loves their trees the most.

I think it's kind of just emblematic of northeast Johnson County altogether, because there's like a a healthy competition among all the cities.

It's all so melded together that I think everybody is wanting to be as good, if not better, than the person that they're next to.

Realistically, any place in that little, that little model of of that section of Kansas City, fairway, Roland Park, Mission Hills, Westwood, it's like walking into a different, different world when you get into that part of Kansas City.

But he's like Prairie Village and Roland Park in particular, were developed by Jesse Nichols.

And I mean, the trees were part of those developments.

Residents over time have definitely come to chill up their trees.

Okay.

I think all of these cities do care a lot about their trees.

If I had to pick one, I would probably say Prairie Village, only because they tend to go, you know, a little bit above and beyond for their trees.

They were one of the first to have a tree preservation ordinance in northeast Johnson County.

They limit how trees can be removed in their city.

That is part of the tree preservation ordinance.

And they also do a lot of other tree related activities.

I think, you know, anyone who has been in Prairie Village, you know, you're driving down somebody's first street and there's like trees lining the entire street in the summer.

You know, they're falling over each other.

It's very iconic for a lot of prairie villagers in particular.

And they really care about their trees because they see what the trees provide for them, whether it's shade, lower energy bills for residents, when people have just really come to be proud of them over the years.

Like if you had to say, you know, which has the best on tree protection ordinances, I would say, you know, absolutely.

Prairie Village, if you're talking about just general forestry.

Overall, I think just because of the size and resources, Overland Park probably has that ability to to take that role.

But in the same aspect, some of those other communities that are smaller that don't necessarily have that same resource are just as passionate and make just as much as they can with the resources that they're provided.

With for these smaller cities, that's where you tend to see a lot more of the tear down rebuild trend.

So you'll see, you know, an older, smaller home torn down, rebuilt into a larger home.

And part of the reason for all of these tree preservation ordinances did come from that tear down rebuild trend.

Other cities like Roeland Park, Fairway Mission as well, also have tree preservation ordinances similar to prairie villages that look at how these cities can protect their aging trees in particular, namely those in the right of ways and in front yards that should only be removed from those places if they are dying, disease or dangerous to humans every year at their state of the cities, at least one, if not more, of the mayor's mentions how northeast Johnson County kind of continues to push each other.

Kansas City is kind of its own special little place, and very proud to be the Northeast District Forester for Kansas because it is, you know, a unique, a unique spot of the state.

I mean, I'm based out of Manhattan.

I mean, we're two hours west of here, and we get almost ten inches less of rainfall than Kansas City gets over here.

So the trees that we can grow over here, the weather, even two hours east, makes all the difference in the world.

We see a lot healthier trees.

We see a lot larger trees.

The majority of our state champion trees come from out here in this eastern quarter of the state, and a lot of that is just due to not only the weather, but the people that are here and the people that, you know, have devoted their lives to really taking care of this natural resource.

A lot of these older trees are nearing the end of their lifespan, so they're going to be dying off sooner rather than later.

So they're thinking about how do we plan for the future and how we're going to keep this tree canopy that folks have come to love, while also trying to protect the tree canopy that we've had for so long, for as long as we can.

They spent almost $2.4 million on tree care.

That's a resource that another community may not have.