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PITTSFIELD, ILL. -- There is some good news for Pittsfield, Illinois.

After years of hard work and trying to meet guidelines set forth by the Arbor Day Foundation, the community is now a Tree City USA.

When you take a drive along Washington street in Pittsfield and you'll see old majestic homes built over a century ago and you'll also see plenty of trees providing beauty and shade. And now Pittsfield is joining the ranks with Barry, Macomb and Quincy to become another Tree City USA.

Bill McCartney is the Pittsfield Economic Development Director and he said, "you know when you fly over a village or a city and it looks like a small forest and there's management required for these trees that you see, so that's the reason why we organized the tree board and got the application in to become a Tree City USA."

To help celebrate their recognition as a new Tree City USA, members of the Pittsfield High School's Future Farmer's of America and other community members were on hand to plant a tree at King Park.

The four stipulations that every city must meet before being considered to become a Tree City is that they form a tree board, spend at least $2 per capita on city forestry expenditures, have a tree ordinance and observe Arbor Day every year.

"We've started doing an inventory of existing trees and also of places that need trees. And so that's kind of the basis we worked from," McCartney said.

The city said they're going to plant 25 trees this year. And will maintain that for that number for the coming years. McCartney says they will plant a different types of trees each year to avoid any problems with disease that could wipe out certain trees within an area.

Pittsfield joins other area tree cities in the tri-state area, including Macomb, Quincy and Barry in Illinois and Kahoka, Memphis and Hannibal in Missouri.