VA Department of Forestry issues Urban Tree Canopy assessment of Roanoke, VA

Columbus to enter into UTC assessment project with ODNR; Columbus, OH

Columbus Local News: > Archives > Region > News > Youth and Family board funding likely held to '09 level:
Other resolutions authorized Finance Director Michelle Kelly-Underwood to enter into an agreement with a company to provide property and casualty insurance for the city, and authorized Service Director Butch Seidle to cooperate with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources to implement an urban tree canopy assessment program.

Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board gets grant for proactive ash removal in anticipation of ash borer invasion; Minneapolis, MN

Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board - News & Events:
The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board’s (MPRB) battle against Emerald Ash Borer got a financial boost from a Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) grant. The MPRB’s Forestry Division received $98,400 as part of the MDA’s Forest Protection Reserve Planning and Preparedness Grant Program.
The grant monies will be used to proactively remove ash trees on boulevards, parks, golf courses and other City property; grind the resulting stumps; and replant diverse trees in a controlled and orderly manner.
According to Ralph Sievert, MPRB director of park forestry, emphasis will be placed on removing 300-400 declining or defective ash trees and replacing them with 350-450 new trees of diverse species. “Our effort will also include partnering with neighborhood organizations to educate residents of the Emerald Ash Borer threat and how the program will be implemented.”

State gives $1.8 million in grants to help cities fight ash borer; St. Paul, MN

State gives money to help cities fight ash borer Minnesota Public Radio NewsQ:
St. Paul, Minn. — The Minnesota Department of Agriculture awarded $1.8 million in grants this week to fight the spread of the dreaded emerald ash borer.
The department targeted $1 million of the Forest Protection Reserve Grants to areas where the destructive beetle has already been discovered --- St. Paul, Falcon Heights, and the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities campus.
The emerald ash borer has destroyed millions of trees in the United States. The beetle's larvae feed on the inner bark of ash trees, and destroy the tree's ability to transport water and nutrients.
Minnesota has about 900 million ash trees, and department officials have cautioned that the infestation could quickly spread throughout the state.

State of PA recruiting for Chesapeake Bay urban forester position - duties related to urban tree canopy targeting in the state; PA

Chesapeake Bay Forester

Urban Forestry

Job Description: Urban Tree Canopy (UTC) Assessments

A Chesapeake Bay Forester (Forester) will be hired through PA Community Forests and housed with the DCNR Bureau of Forestry, Rural and Community Forestry Section in Harrisburg. The individual will establish a replicable method for communities to proceed through the UTC process. This will include information on how to obtain imagery data, how to get those data analyzed, how to set UTC goals, and how to develop a management plan using the information from the imagery along with the goals that have been set.

Bartlett arborist gets to root of Macon State’s tree problem; Macon, GA

Arborist gets to root of Macon State’s tree problem - Local & State - Macon.com:
Workers from Bartlett Tree Experts in Tucker spent hours Wednesday using air guns to aerate the soil underneath oak trees planted in the late 1960s.
After losing much of their canopy to the tornado, the trees have lost the ability to feed themselves, said Tyler Baxter, an arborist and Bartlett employee.
Baxter said aerating the roots and replacing mulch with manure will give the trees a better growing environment.
The work is being funded by a $20,000 grant from the Georgia Forestry Commission’s Urban & Community Forestry Grant program, according to a news release.

Under the grant’s terms, the Macon State College Foundation is providing matching funds.
Derrick Catlett, a groundskeeper at the college, said the campus lost an estimated 95 percent of its tree canopy, including about 3,900 trees to the tornado.
Catlett said workers have given priority to many of the oldest trees on campus, many planted when the college was first established.

ALCOA and IN DNR partner to fund replacement of six ash with 17 new trees of other species; Greencastle, IN

Greencastle Banner-Graphic: Local News: Greencastle Parks Department completes tree planting grant: GREENCASTLE -- Because urban and community forests can make a difference in our lives and replenishing the tree cover within the municipal parks system is a high priority for the City of Greencastle, is what led the City of Greencastle Tree Board, Board of Park Commissioners and the Greencastle Parks and Recreation Department to apply for the ALCOA/DNR Community and Urban Forestry Tree Planting Partnership Grant.
Due to a generous grant from the ALCOA Foundation, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources -- Division of Forestry created the community tree planting partnership to assist municipalities and not-for-profit organizations to purchase and plant trees on public property.

ConnDOT Commissioner takes Tree Alliance's complaints about Merritt Parkway tree-cutting under advisement; Wilton, CT

Tree Alliance joins fight against Merritt tree-cutting - Wilton News - Wilton Villager - Wilton's Newspaper: "The Norwalk Tree Alliance has joined the effort to get the state Department of Transportation to trim back its tree cutting along the Merritt Parkway.

The Tree Alliance, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote Norwalk's urban forest canopy, expressed its position in an e-mail to ConnDOT Commissioner Joseph F. Marie and other state officials. Marie has taken the conservancy's concerns under advisement, according to the alliance.

Dave Tracy, the president of the Tree Alliance, told Marie that 'the irreparable cutting down of trees is removing the defining elements of the parkway,' according to a statement released by the alliance.

Tracy asked ConnDOT to work with the Merritt Parkway Conservancy and 'professional consultants to replant the appropriate trees and shrubs to restore the parkway's unique bucolic character which he reported has already been damaged in Fairfield and Trumbull.'"

Tree Alliance joins fight against DOT's Merritt Parkway tree-cutting; Norwalk, CT

Tree Alliance joins fight against Merritt tree-cutting – Wilton Villager CT Environmental Headlines: NORWALK — The Norwalk Tree Alliance has joined the effort to get the state Department of Transportation to trim back its tree cutting along the Merritt Parkway. The Tree Alliance, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote Norwalk’s urban forest canopy, expressed its position in an e-mail to ConnDOT Commissioner Joseph F. Marie and other state officials.

Volunteers use modified "click-n-classify" method to assess UTC, other land cover; Jefferson, GA

gainesvilletimes.com - Jefferson keeps close eye on its trees:
In general, people don’t pay much attention to trees unless one is about to fall on their house, but that is not the case for a group of Jefferson volunteers.

They are busy scouring aerial maps of the city to account for existing tree coverage, or canopy, as a part of the Jefferson Sustainable Community Forest Project, which was made possible by a Georgia Urban and Community Forestry Grant.

“Volunteers will analyze the landscape cover of the city from 20 aerial maps. Each map is covered with a grid of yellow dots and volunteers will be categorizing the dots by the land cover beneath it,” said Connie Head, project coordinator and urban forestry consultant.

City looks to increase UTC from 25% to 45% - NJ Cool Cities grant will help; Wood-ridge, NJ

Leader Newspapers:
By Colleen Reynolds / Reporter

WOOD-RIDGE (Oct. 1, 2009) — Satellite imagery reveals Wood-Ridge to be one of the greener municipalities in The Leader coverage area, but it is about to get much leafier.
The borough recently won a Cool Cities Initiative grant from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Division of Parks and Forestry and the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities. The grant will help pay for the planting of 75 mature shade trees on publicly-owned land throughout the 1.1-square-mile municipality. The planting is expected to take root Nov. 10, 11 and 12, depending on weather and site conditions.
“The real benefit of this is to provide tree canopy,” said George Meglio, chair of the Wood-Ridge Shade Tree Commission.
State surveys indicate that the borough has a forest cover of only 25.5 percent, a figure low enough to qualify for the grant, Meglio said.
Although he noted that adding 75 trees to the current borough inventory of approximately 3,500 is a small percentage increase, it is an admirable start.

Indiana Urban Forest Council’s 19th Annual Fall Conference keys on role non-profits play in UTC strategies; Indianapolis, IN

Indiana Urban Forest Council’s 19th Annual Fall Conference Boasts Keynote Pepper Provenzano of TreeLink Muncie Free Press:
CARMEL, IN - On October 14th, 2009 the Indiana Urban Forest Council (IUFC) will hold its 19th annual Fall Conference: “Widening the Circle: How to Broaden the Urban Forest Community”.
A wide array of urban forestry professionals from Indiana and across the nation will convene at the Keep Indianapolis Beautiful (KIB)
headquarters in Indianapolis to share information about the vital role nonprofits play in increasing Indiana’s diminishing tree canopy cover. Opening the conference will be Keep Indianapolis Beautiful President David Forsell, who will share strategies that KIB has
implemented to make trees a working and valuable asset to the City of Indianapolis; which has resulted in community-wide buy in as well as the planting of more than 20,000 trees since 2006.

City gets grant to study benefits provided by UTC; Clarksville, TN

theleafchronicle.com The Leaf-Chronicle Clarksville and Fort Campbell news, community, entertainment, yellow pages and classifieds. Serving Clarksville, TN:
City of Clarksville to get $9K for tree study
By ERIC SNYDER • The Leaf-Chronicle • September 2, 2009
Clarksville will receive a $9,000 grant to help the city learn more about its urban forest.
According to a city news release this week, the city will receive the state Department of Agriculture's Urban and Community Forestry Grant. The funds will allow the city to partner with Austin Peay State University's GIS Center, whose student workers will input information on the city's trees into CITYGreen.
CITYGreen is a piece of computer software, purchased by the city last year, that will allow Clarksville to "inventory, quantify and analyze the tree canopy and its benefits for the entire city," the news release said.

Also covered in: Clarksville receives Tennessee Urban and Community Forestry Grant

GA Sustainable Community Forestry Program identifies Tree Canopy Loss and Impervious Surface Gain mapping as signature project; GA

Tree Canopy Loss and Impervious Surface Gain « Sustainable Community Forestry:
Recently, the Sustainable Community Forestry Program (SCFP) staff was asked to select one project or one component of the program that would convey the importance of SCFP to Georgians and to Georgia’s natural resources. The choice was obvious. The following Tree Canopy and Impervious Surface Study, completed by Dr. Elizabeth Kramer at the University of Georgia Natural Resources Spatial Analysis Laboratory(NARSAL), has been widely used by communities across the state working to conserve their tree canopy and Georgia’s precious natural resources. Startling images and data confirm previous estimates of 50 acres of trees a day lost to development in metro Atlanta, all of which were replaced with impervious surfaces. And, similar trends continued across the state in Savannah, Columbus and other fast growing metropolitan areas.

Georgia Forestry Commission gives Jefferson grant for planting, UTC assessment; Jeferson, GA

Jefferson aims to spruce up its trees | News | OnlineAthens.com
JEFFERSON - The city of Jefferson can be a shady place, but the city’s Heritage Tree Council is working to make it even shadier.
The tree council, which was launched about three years ago, on Thursday received a $30,000 grant from the Georgia Forestry Commission to enhance the city’s collection of trees.
About $10,000 of the grant is to plant shade trees around a playground used by Boys & Girls Club members, and the rest, combined with $5,000 that the council received in 2008, will go to study exactly how much of the city is covered by a tree canopy.

i-Tree software package helps town undertake inventory, calculate trees' ecosystem services; Durham, NC

Forest Hills Neighborhood Association: Durham Street Tree Inventory/Canopy Analysis
Trees provide a lot to us as residents of Durham. Just what it is they do for us is sometimes hard to assign a value to. This makes it hard to justify spending the money needed to maintain an urban tree canopy, especially when other issues clamor for scarce resources.The good news is that there is a way to estimate the value of an urban forest. Thanks to a partnership between the Davey Resource Group and the US Forest Service, there is a suite of software called i-Tree that works in conjunction with a set of tools developed specifically for inventorying and evaluating the value, condition, and canopy density of an urban forest.

Keeping NY state green: The 17th Annual New York State ReLeaf Conference; NY

MEDIA ADVISORY: The 17th Annual New York State ReLeaf Conference

Greening the Big Apple: Forestry from the Streets
ALBANY, NY (07/15/2009)(readMedia)-- For three days, urban environmentalists from across New York State will gather at the Pratt Institute campus in Brooklyn for the 17th Annual New York ReLeaf Conference. On July 16-18, more than 150 experts, advocates, educators, and community leaders involved in the urban forestry movement will participate in a series of activities including workshops, tours, ceremonies, and a picnic.

Exotic invasive albizia trees cause risk to travelers on Kuhio Highway - state developing management plan; Kalihiwai, HI

TheGardenIsland.com > News > Kauai News > Invasive trees still causing damage

By Paul C. Curtis - The Garden Island
Published: Monday, June 29, 2009 2:09 AM HST
KALIHIWAI — Invasive albizia trees, which grew naturally along Kuhio Highway to form a tree-tunnel-like canopy pleasing to some motorists, are still causing trouble, according to neighbors and state officials.

A week after tree trimmers removed some of the branches thought to be dangerous to drivers, another branch came crashing down, landing on a North Shore family’s mini-van, denting the hood and crushing the windshield, said Adam Frye, who lives along the highway in Kalihiwai.

“I think everyone was OK, physically, but mentally, holy cow, must have been so scary,” he said in an e-mail.

The state has hired a professional to assess the situation and a report of the findings is due next month.

SWCD searching for largest white oak tree in Pike County; Pike County, OH

SWCD searching for largest white oak tree in Pike County | chillicothegazette.com | Chillicothe Gazette
June 28, 2009
In an effort to encourage landowners and others interested in trees, the Pike Soil and Water Conservation District is conducting a contest in search of the largest white oak tree in Pike County.
On a statewide basis, the Ohio Division of Forestry, in cooperation with the International Paper Co., conducts the state Big Tree Program. According to the division, the national Big Tree Registry of 826 big trees is maintained by American Forests, a conservation organization based in Washington, D.C.
On the local level, the goal of the district's program is to engage individuals with an interest in Ohio's forest resource in the search of the largest white oak tree, and to reward the individual who finds the largest specimen of this particular species.

Maine's Project Canopy funds local tree planting; Hampden, ME

Tree Planting Project In Hampden - WABI TV5
by Amy Erickson · Jun 27th 2009 · See more Local News
Hampden residents spent Saturday making their town more beautiful.

The town teamed up with the Hampden Tree Board for a special Arbor Day activitity.

Volunteers planted about fifty trees and shrubs at the Lura Hoit Pool on Western Ave.

The project was funded by a Project Canopy grant from the Maine Forest Service.