This electronic newsletter is published bi-monthly for state and federal urban forestry program coordinators and other interested individuals. Please print or copy this newsletter and distribute it to volunteer coordinators, state council chairs, and other interested individuals within your state or region, or forward it electronically to them. You can always find it on-line and archived at www.treelink.org.

Submissions to this newsletter are welcome and requested. Items suitable for inclusion are state and national urban forestry information, products or innovations, grant opportunities, and notices of regional and national urban forestry events. Please submit a maximum of two paragraphs to the editorial committee listed below by the 20th of the month for inclusion in the following month's edition.

The UCF Coordinators Newsletter is compiled and edited by:

Ed Macie, USDA Forest Service - Southern Region
(emacie@fs.fed.us) phone 404-347-1647

Dick Rideout, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
(richard.rideout@dnr.state.wi.us) phone 608-267-0843

Paul D. Ries, Oregon Department of Forestry
(pries@odf.state.or.us) phone 503-945-7391

Phillip D. Rodbell, USDA Forest Service - Northeastern Area
(prodbell@fs.fed.us) phone 610-557-4133

Pepper Provenzano, TreeLink
(pepper@treelink.org)

NEXT DUE DATE FOR SUBMISSION: August 20, 2005

Words for thought

"My administration is committed to improving air and water quality for the citizens of Baltimore and we express a sincere desire to work towards setting an Urban Tree Canopy Goal for Maryland's largest urban area."

-- Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley
notifying Maryland DNR that he will join efforts of the Chesapeake Bay Program to set and achieve urban tree canopy goals.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Around the States
• Senate Appropriations Committee on Interior, Environment and Related Agencies
• NUCFAC to Fill Six Positions
• Success of 2004 Conservation Ballot Measures Highlighted in New Report
• Green Highway Certification
• Millenium Ecosystem Assessment
• Keep the Memory Alive: A New Web Feature from NADF
• Emerald Ash Borer Roundup
• Grant Opportunitie$
• Publications & Websites
• Job Opportunities
• Continuing Education
• Calendar of Events

Around The States  [back to top]

Western Urban Forestry Staff Changes
The West has lost two very talented urban foresters to retirement. Dave Mooter, state coordinator for Nebraska, and Eric Oldar, Urban Forestry Specialist in California, are both "heading off to greener pastures" as retirees this summer. Both Dave and Eric are past chairs of the Council of Western State Foresters Urban Forestry Committee and have blazed a trail of leadership for many western UCF coordinators. We wish them well in their new endeavors.

Urban Greening Initiative of Chesapeake Bay Trust
The Chesapeake Bay Trust, in cooperation with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources Forest Service Division, has established the Community Greening Initiative Grant Program. The program, funded through license plate fees, is designed to aid communities in Maryland to implement "greening" plans that increase forest canopy, reduce stormwater runoff, improve air quality, and improve the quality of life in urban areas. The pilot program will commit $250,000 to local communities and/or non-profit organizations for on-the-ground restoration activities that support the implementation of an adopted plan to green communities in Maryland. For more information, visit www.chesapeakebaytrust.org

iTree in Minneapolis
This spring, the USDA Forest Service and its cooperators promoted the benefits of trees using data collected in Minneapolis during the summer of 2004. "Trees Pay Us Back" shows that when trees are properly cared for, they are valuable growing assets worth three times their investment, with the greatest benefits coming from energy savings and increased property values. The research is part of a pilot of the iTree software application for field data collection. The data collected in Minneapolis will serve as a baseline for other communities located within the same climate zone. It will allow others to estimate their street tree costs and benefits with only a limited amount of inventory data collection required. For more information, visit http://www.itreetools.org/

DC Water Authority to Purchase Trees
The District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority (WASA) entered into a Consent Decree with the U.S. Government to resolve allegations regarding the combined sewer systems in DC. The decree requires that WASA undertake supplemental environmental projects consisting of two elements, urban tree planting and rain gardens, because measures have the potential to reduce combine sewer outflow. WASA proposes to plant 3,000 trees in the combined sewer area of the district. With funding provided by WASA, the trees will be planted and maintained by the DC's Urban Forestry Administration. Due to the large size of the district and the nature of runoff interception by trees, it is impractical to quantitatively measure the environmental benefits of trees in the field. As a result, WASA proposes regular inspection and care of the trees and an assessment of tree health at the end of the project. They will also be required to estimate reductions in CSO due to the trees using the most current version of the combined sewer system model, coupled with the latest research regarding the effect of trees on reducing runoff. As part of the agreement, construction, maintenance, and monitoring of two bio-retention rain gardens in an existing CSO are planned using a flow meter before and after construction.

Update on ALB Efforts in New Jersey
According to the New Jersey Forest Service, Asian longhorned beetle (ALB) continues to plague New Jersey. As of June 3, 2005, 5,790 infected or high-risk trees have been removed. The goal for replanting this spring was 700 trees, and 688 have been planted to date. Although the Department of Agriculture is making good progress with the removals, they are not yet complete. Tree removals continue in the quarantine zone. The systemic pesticide imidacloprid is being injected and drenched into the cambium of host trees in the treatment zone to kill ALB when it bores into the trees. An estimated 20,000 trees will be treated. Crews continue to remove trees in the residential sections of Carteret, Linden, Rahway, and Woodbridge. Survey, control, and regulatory activities are currently underway in Jersey City, involving professionals from the UDSA, APHIS-PPQ, New Jersey Department of Agriculture, and the New Jersey Forest Service. Nine USDA Forest Service smokejumpers, along with 15 contracted tree climbers from the Bartlett Tree Expert Company, continue to survey trees in the Middlesex and Union ALB infestation site. More than 9,000 trees have been inspected to date. For more information contact Pam.Tappen @dep.state.nj.us

On The National Front

Senate Appropriations Committee on Interior, Environment and Related Agencies  [back to top]
In record time, on July 29, Congress signed and sent to the President their marks for Interior appropriations (HR 109-188). The UCF Program received $28,875,000. FY 05 funding for the UCF Program was $31,950,000 amounting to a loss of 3,075,000. In addition, the conference agreement includes an across the board rescission of 0.476 percent. This reduction will be applied to each program, project, and activity, resulting in an additional reduction of $137,445. The bill was signed by the President in early August. The House/Senate compromise included the following earmarks: $350K for Chicago Greenstreets program, $350K for tree planting in Milwaukee, 150K for the Baltimore urban watershed forestry demonstration, $700K for Northeast Pennsylvania. All of these, but the Baltimore project, were additive to the Administration's proposed amount for the program in FY2006: 27,475,000. For full text of the legislation, visit http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/cpquery/R?cp109:FLD010:@1(hr188).

NUCFAC to Fill Six Positions  [back to top]
The USDA Forest Service is seeking nominees to fill positions on the National Urban and Community Forestry Advisory Council. Nominations for the following positions:

• Person representing forest products, nursery, or related industries;
• Person representing academic institutions with an expertise in urban and community forestry activities; and
• Person who is not an officer or employee of any governmental body who is a resident of a community with a population of more than 50,000 as of the most recent census and has expertise and has been active in urban and community forestry.
• Person representing a national non-profit forestry and conservation citizen organization.
• Person representing city/town government;
• Person who is not an officer or employee of any governmental body who is a resident of a community with a population of less than 50,000 as of the most recent census and has expertise and has been active in urban and community forestry.

Nominations must be submitted by Sept. 30, 2005. Anyone nominated or who submits a nominee for consideration will be notified after the Secretary of Agriculture makes his selections. The call for nominations letter with complete instructions on the nomination process is posted on the NUCFAC homepage at http://www.treelink.org/nucfac/

Municipal Forester Institute to help train tree care professionals  [back to top]
The Municipal Forester Institute (or MFI) is a new learning experience tailored to the needs of municipal urban foresters and arborists. This is not just another conference full of endless PowerPoint presentations Ð it is an interactive learning experience featuring present and former city foresters from cities across North America, and other urban forestry professionals. The goals of the Municipal Forester Institute are to 1) train future urban forestry leaders, 2) stimulate interest in individual certification, and 3) promote municipal urban forestry program improvement and accreditation, all in an effort to foster more sustainable local urban forestry programs. The first ever offering of this new program is scheduled for Feb. 12-17, 2006 at Lake Arrowhead, California. Thanks to a grant from the USDA Forest Service, the fee for the MFI has been reduced from $1000 to $800. This fee covers food, lodging and materials. Apply online at www.urban-forestry.com. Application deadline is Oct. 15, 2005.

Forest Service Research Launches New Institute  [back to top]
The Urban Natural Resource Institute (UNRI) for the Northeast is an initiative of the USDA Forest Service Northern Research Station that serves as a point of contact for focused research, development, and information exchange about urban natural resource management in the Northeast and Midwest. The Institute consists of Forest Service scientists who are conducting science-based research on urban natural resource issues throughout the region. The resources of the Institute are located in various research units in cooperation with State, university, municipal, and commercial cooperators. For more information, visit www.unri.org.

Emerald Ash Borer Roundup  [back to top]
EAB has killed or infested 15 million trees in the Michigan. In Ohio, about 200,000 ash trees have been destroyed, most chopped by crews trying to slow the beetle's spread. It's also been found in Indiana and Ontario, Canada. The borer embeds itself within ash wood, gnawing at vital layers beneath the surface and cutting off the tree's nourishment. It eventually makes its way out of the tree and flies about a half-mile a year in search of another food source. That's why cutting down trees in outlying areas is so important. The federal government spent $3.8 million to fight the emerald ash borer in Ohio last year. The state has requested $11.6 million for 2005.

Grant Opportunitie$  [back to top]

Scholarships to Charlotte
The USDA Forest Service Urban and Community Forestry program offers scholarship funds for registration to attend the National Conference on Urban Ecosystems on Nov. 17-18, 2005 in Charlotte, North Carolina. This opportunity is available to individuals from minority and underrepresented groups. The application form asks the applicant to indicate the ethnic minority group they belong to (African American, American Indian, Asian, Hispanic, Pacific Islander) or other, if they belong to another underrepresented group, which could include individuals with disabilities qualified under the ADA or Americans with Disabilities Act (impaired vision, hearing, speaking, walking, breathing and other).

The Forest Service will award three scholarships for each state, as well as three each for Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Pacific territories. Individuals who wish to apply for scholarships should send the application form to Iris Magaly Zayas, USDA Forest Service. After July 30, 2005 the scholarships will be awarded to those who are eligible as available on a first-come, first-served basis. For complete information and application visit the American Forests Conference Website: http://www.americanforests.org/conference/schMinority.php

Publications & Websites  [back to top]

City Parks Briefing Papers
The City Parks Forum is dedicated to providing information on how healthy parks are fundamental to many aspects of community prosperity. These include improving economic health and vitality, reducing crime, improving public physical and mental health, creating a strong sense of community, supporting overall quality of life and much more. All these issues are important to communities across the country, and to those both in and outside the parks profession. While these benefits are understood broadly, they have not been compiled and presented in a way that explicitly shows these relationships. The City Parks Forum has produced a series of briefing papers on "How Cities Use Parks For *" to meet this specific need. This series helps to support mayors, their parks advisors, private sector parks advocates, planners, and others in promoting parks and ensuring an urban parks legacy across the country. http://www.planning.org/cpf/briefingpapers.htm

Topics and authors include:

• Community Revitalization by Peter Harnik
• Community Engagement by Mark Francis
• Economic Development by Megan Lewis, AICP
• Create Safer Neighborhoods by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Human-Environment Research Laboratory
• Green Infrastructure by Mark Benedict and Edward T. McMahon
• Help Children Learn by Robin Moore
• Improve Public Health by Howard Frumkin, M.D., and Mary E. Eysenbach
• Arts and Cultural Programs by David Rivel
• Promote Tourism by John L. Crompton
• Smart Growth by Kathy Blaha

Landscape Tree Fact Sheets
The CD version of Landscape Tree Factsheets is now available. The popular resource guide for street trees has been developed into a CD version by Henry Gerhold, Professor, Penn State School of Forest Resources, with funding provided by the USDA Forest Service. The new version only takes a few moments to learn and navigation is faster than turning pages back and forth in the book from which the CD ROM originated. Copies will be made available to each State UCF program. After that, copies will be available at a cost of $25 from the Penn State School of Forest Resources. To purchase a CD, contact Henry at hdg @psu.edu

Manual on Urban Watershed Forestry
The Center for Watershed Protection (CWP), in cooperation with the USDA Forest Service, Northeastern Area State and Private Forestry, is producing a three-part manual series on using trees to protect and restore urban watersheds. The contents of the manual are the result of extensive research compiled over the past year as well as two design workshops held in early 2004 that focused on using trees for stormwater treatment and planting trees in the urban landscape. These workshops were attended by more than 40 local, regional, and national experts, including foresters, stormwater engineers, landscape architects, arborists, urban soil scientists, watershed planners, and representatives from parks, transportation, and utility companies. For more information on obtaining the manual, go to http://www.cwp.org/forestry/index.htm.

America's Rainforests
Join an electronic field trip on Oct. 14, 2005 to explore tropical and temperate rain forests. Learning objectives include:

• Understand basic ecology and function of both systems
• Recognize the value and challenges
• Be motivated to explore ecosystems where you live
• Understand that National Forests are public lands managed for all

2006 Smokey Bear and Woodsy Owl Poster Contest
Sponsors: National Garden Club and the Forest Service
Grade level: Students in grades 1-5
Deadline: January 15, 2006
Theme: Help us stop the Invader. For more information go to www.invasivespecies.gov
Contacts: State National Garden Clubs

Google Earth
Have you seen the latest product Google has come up with at http://earth.google.com? It's a beta version program that is really interesting because it allows for multiple perspective panning and 3-D views in some cities.

Ideas about Urban Forestry from the recent European Forum on Urban Forestry
The 8th European Forum on Urban Forestry was held this past May in Slovenia. A summary statement from the event organizers: "For a successful branding of urban green space it should be discussed not just among forest services or city green departments, but much more in a general city policy and planning context; and it should be discussed together with city planners, health departments, etc. Urban green infrastructure should become a logical element of city planning." For an assortment of research papers, see: http://www.efuf.org

Controlling Invasives
Many publications are available on http://ag.udel.edu/extension/horticulture/ornamentals.htm

Plants for Livable Delaware
http://ag.udel.edu/extension/horticulture/pdf/PLD.pdf

Controlling Backyard Invaders
http://ag.udel.edu/extension/horticulture/pdf/backyardinvaders.pdf

Alternatives to Tree Grates
A pretty good recent overview of the topic can be seen at this link: http://www.newurbannews.com/StreetTreesJan05.html

Urban Tree Risk Management
The USDA Forest Service, Northeastern Area, announces a free new publication, "Urban Tree Risk Management: A Community Guide to Program Design and Implementation." It's available on-line at http://www.na.fs.fed.us/spfo/pubs/uf/utrmm/

Greening Connecticut Cities
The University of Connecticut has published a hardcover book, Greening Connecticut Cities & Towns: Managing Public Trees and Community Forests (ISBN 0-9762517-0-1). It is a popular piece and not a technical one, intended to educate community volunteers, decision makers, and grant makers. It is available from Extension Forest Educator Bob Ricard, for $19 plus shipping, robert.ricard @uconn.edu.

Job Opportunities  [back to top]

Visit JobLink for a variety of employment opportunities.
http://treelink.org/forum/viewforum.php?f=3

Continuing Education  [back to top]

Visit the current Calendar of Events at www.treelink.org/forum/viewforum.php?f=4 on TreeLink.