ECHO SRM-265T Named Organic Gardening 2009 Editors’ Choice Award Winner The Gardening Industry’s Most Coveted Award Honors the Best Gardening Tools and Gadgets

Chicago, IL (4/30/2009) - The ECHO SRM-265T High Torque String Trimmer is a recipient of the 2009 Organic Gardening magazine Editors’ Choice Award, the most prestigious award in the gardening industry, given annually to products in recognition of their outstanding innovation in design, materials and/or performance.

Organic Gardening Executive Editor Scott Meyer and his staff of editors and test gardeners revealed the award winners in the February/March 2009 issue of Organic Gardening.

The Organic Gardening Editors’ Choice Awards, bestowed annually since 2005, honors the products that Organic Gardening editors have chosen as the best of the year based on months of trial testing by teams of highly experienced test gardeners. With no set categories for the awards and no set number of recipients, the products and the testing process drive the award categories.
ECHO SRM-265T

The ECHO SRM-265T was one of 8 innovative products that have been honored with a 2009 Organic Gardening Editors’ Choice Award.

The ECHO SRM-265T trimmer features 50% more cutting torque than the standard ECHO SRM-260 or SRM-261 trimmers, making it ideal for trimming and cutting in thick regional grasses and brush applications. The SRM-265T features a powerful, smooth-running 2-stroke 25.4 cc Power Boost Vortexâ„¢ engine along with i-30â„¢ technology for a 30% reduction in starting effort. And heavy-duty engine vibration reduction systems with padded handles increase operator comfort. It is also equipped with a harness ring located on the shaft, providing an easy, convenient connection for a harness. Additional features include a 59-inch, 4-layer flex cable drive to provide additional strength in handling tough trimming and cutting applications, a 16.9 fl. oz. see-through fuel tank for long run time, and a debris shield with a built-in cut-off knife for optimum line length.

“Organic gardeners are very conscious about their consumption—they want to buy only high-quality tools and other gear that are genuinely useful, versatile, and durable so they aren’t replacing them every season,” Meyer says. “We used these items hard in a variety of conditions so our readers can trust that they will work in their gardens for years to come. This is a vital service Organic Gardening provides for its readers because they rely on our more than 65 years of experience in gardening and product evaluation to help them make smart choices.”

The Organic Gardening Editors’ Choice Awards are the gold standard against which all gardening products are measured, and provide a seal of approval that can help put a gardening company or product on the proverbial map.

All winners must excel under extensive field-testing conducted by Organic Gardening’s team of editors and test gardeners, who take new products into their gardens to put them to the test. This process ensures that the performance of the winners is truly worthy of distinction and meets the guiding principle behind the program: gear that is of real value to the readers of Organic Gardening magazine.

The complete list of Organic Gardening 2009 Editors’ Choice Award winners will be officially announced to the general public in the magazine’s February/March 2009 issue, on newsstands January 13th.

About ECHO Incorporated:

ECHO Incorporated is a leading manufacturer of professional-grade, high-performance hand-held outdoor power equipment for commercial and residential use. Developed to meet the reliability, durability and efficiency demands of commercial and residential customers in the arborist, industrial, landscaping and residential markets, ECHO products have led the industry with a proven standard of performance for more than 30 years. ECHO also markets chippers and chipper/shredders under the ECHO Bear Cat name. For more information, please visit the company’s web site at www.echo-usa.com.

About Rodale Inc.:

Rodale Inc., which was recognized by the trade publication Advertising Age as Publishing Company of the Year for 2006, is the authoritative source for trusted content in health, fitness, and wellness around the world, reaching more than 70 million people globally. The company publishes some of the best-known health and wellness lifestyle magazines, including Men's Health, Prevention, Women's Health, Runner's World, Best Life, Bicycling, Running Times, Mountain Bike, and Organic Gardening, and is also the largest independent book publisher in America with a collection of international titles, including The South Beach Diet and The Abs Diet franchises, and Al Gore's New York Times bestseller An Inconvenient Truth. Rodale's broad range of media platforms includes magazines, books, video, and extensive web sites. For more information on how to grow a beautiful, productive garden the natural way, go to www.organicgardening.com.