Outdoor Circle announces awards

The Outdoor Circle's 2006 Beautification Awards recently honored businesses, individuals and organizations that have created landscape projects to help enhance the environment.

The awards, limited in previous years to entries from Oahu, were open this year to nominations statewide.

The nominations were judged by a panel of experts that included a professional arborist, a landscape architect and an Outdoor Circle board member.

Awards were presented in three categories:

» Tree Setting: Maui Tree Project, Ernie Rezents, Makawao, Maui.

Rezents' project encompasses a corridor of 75 trees planted along a barren 1-mile stretch of Hana Highway outside Kahului. It took seven years to complete. He applied for grants, solicited donations and coaxed the project from start to finish, enlisting 100 volunteers.

» Corporate or Government Landscape: Sherman Courtyard Native and Ecosystem Educational Garden, Natural Resources and Environmental Management, University of Hawaii at Manoa.

This project was the vision of the UH Grounds and Maintenance Department and the faculty and staff of Natural Resources and Environmental Management. It is comprised of native Hawaiian plants that represent various ecosystems throughout the islands.

» Residential Landscape: Bruce and Sandra Nicholl, Kahaluu.

The Nicholls focused their landscape project around a 75-year-old monkeypod tree. The project includes a large flower planter, a raised herb garden, a sustainable vegetable garden and strategically planted papaya, citrus and dwarf banana trees.

The Outdoor Circle was founded in 1912 and has more than 2,500 members statewide.