Oncor, a Texas-based electricity provider, is sponsoring the donation of 12,000 Texas Star bur oaks to its customers through the Arbor Day Foundation’s Energy-Saving Trees program. Soon the unique Texas Star bur oak trees, a product of the Texas A&M Forest Service Urban Tree Improvement Program, will be dotting the state’s landscape in an effort to conserve energy, reduce carbon dioxide emissions and improve storm water management.
In colder climates, trees are beginning to go dormant and many people think there is no need to pay attention to them during the winter. The Colorado State Forest Service wants to remind people that trees require care before and during the winter to remain in top health.
Did you grab your camera and document urban forestry volunteers in action during National NeighborWoodsTM Month? If you did, the Alliance for Community Trees would like to see your pictures.
A team of Indiana University researchers will spend the next three years studying the effects of tree-planting programs in six cities. The U.S. Forest Service is helping by awarding a $173,206 grant.
The District of Columbia announced they are kicking off the largest single planting effort DDOT’s Urban Forestry Administration (UFA) has ever undertaken. UFA has already planted more than 1,000 trees since the beginning of October and will plant an additional 5,400 trees across all eight wards through the winter and into late spring.
This week, the City of Knoxville, Tennessee announced it had hired the city's first urban forester. Mayor Madeline Rogero said, "His expertise will be invaluable as we work to protect and expand our urban canopy. Trees are crucial to our local ecology and to the quality of life for all Knoxvillians." The new urban forester will manage Knoxville's forestry program, including care of trees on city property and planning for future tree planting.
Many cities are alerting citizens to the needs of our urban forests this winter. With temperatures dropping, many assume that the trees are settled in for the winter. But thanks to ongoing droughts in much of the country, this may not be the case. In Colorado Springs, the City Forestry Department has reminded residents to water their trees, even though the weather is getting cooler.
Last week Southern University designated a tree-covered ravine running through the campus as an educational forest. Many attended the unveiling of the "outdoor learning laboratory," including U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell. Tidwell’s visit coincided with a $120,000 federal grant Southern received to help run its urban forest training program and help develop a landscape plan for the school’s mid-campus forest.
New York City is past the halfway mark of its New York Restoration Project, but still has a long way to go. To broaden a canopy that beautifies the city while also filtering pollution and reducing stormwater runoff, the New York Restoration Project has scheduled tree giveaways in all five boroughs in October and November. The goal is to plant a total of a million trees.
