Touro Street home to tree of the year

NEWPORT, R.I. (AP) -- The Newport Tree Commission has named a cooper leaf beach as the city's tree of the year for 2012.

The commission announced on Wednesday that the tree on Touro Street got nearly 36 percent of the ballots cast during "vigorous" online and in-person voting at the library.

The second-place tree was a weeping beech at Salve Regina University's library. It got about 23 percent of the vote. The third-place tree was a fern leaf beech at Fort Adams. There were 10 trees in the running as finalists.

Last year's tree of the year, a European beech in Aquidneck Park, was lost during the past year because of root disease and interior rot.

Nominees for the 2013 tree of the year will be accepted during Newport Arboretum Week in April.