April Question of the month was "What does your state do for Arbor Day and to honor Tree Cities?" [back to top]
Idaho's Del Jaquish, acting Community Forestry coordinator, reported that Idaho honors Tree Cities at the annual conference of the Association of Idaho Cities. The Idaho Community Forestry Advisory Council meeting is held at the same time, and helps decorate. Nursery partners provide potted trees and balloons. Tree City USA banners, flags, and Treeline flags are placed around the room along with several 6 to 8 foot trees around the speakers rostrum. At the end of the program, the center piece trees are awarded to someone at each table
Each Tree City USA is featured in a PowerPoint program that projects a historic picture of the town and current pictures of community tree-planting or tree-care activities. This year, Idaho has too many Tree Cities to feature in the allotted time, so the long-standing Tree Cities will be highlighted in a brochure and the eleven new Tree Cities in the PowerPoint presentation. The popular luncheon encourages other cities to work toward Tree City USA designation. For additional information, contact Del at 3780 Industrial Avenue South, Coeur d'Alene, ID 83815. Phone 208/666-8621 or 800-432-4648. Fax 208/769-1524. E-mail: djaquish@cda.idl.state.id.us
Indiana has 41 tree cities, 18 city foresters, and 32 tree boards. They were honored this year by the state coordinator, the state forester and the First Lady of Indiana, Judy O'Bannon. The state's first lady and officials visited five Tree Cities that were also part of her Millennium Communities program. At each community, she displayed a beautiful wood box made from urban wood, spoke about the importance of community forests, and presented each community with a historic tree from American Forests Famous and Historic Trees program, then joined in the planting. The Indiana Community & Urban Forestry program (CUF) staff was able to travel to 28 tree cities this year and offer that personal touch to each presentation. Many of Indiana's district foresters participated in Tree City celebrations as well. Each historic tree presented was a sister tree to those 80 that were planted at the Millennium Grove, Ft. Harrison State Park, Indianapolis, which was dedicated to Mrs. O'Bannon on May 15 by the CUF.
Nebraska, home of Arbor Day, invites all of their Tree City USA communities to Lincoln for a ceremony with Gov. Mike Johanns. This year, more than half of Nebraska's 107 communities were represented.
On Arbor Day, Gov. Johanns planted a tree at the State Capitol, an annual event in the Arbor Day State. A local grade school sponsored the tree planting and helped collect funds to purchase trees. Trees are being planted as a part of the historical restoration of Nebraska's Capitol landscape. The State Arbor Day Poster Contest winner was also honored. Omaha Power was also honored as the first Tree Line USA company in Nebraska. Dave Mooter said it was a great Arbor Day and he participated in three programs that day and also did about seven others during the week. For more information, contact Dave at: UNL-Nebraska Forest Service; 8015 West Center Rd., Omaha, NE 68124. Phone 402/444-7804. E-mail DMOOTER2@unl.edu.
Welcome to the newest member of the Nebraska Forest Service community forestry team, Chip Murrow. Chip fills the position of assistant community forester at the Lincoln office. Chip is a graduate of Iowa State and has worked in utility forestry and municipal forestry. He will be centering his efforts in the eastern half of Nebraska. Chip can be reached by phone at 402-472-1382 or email jmurrow2@unl.edu.
The Nebraska Community Forestry Council has undertaken a public relations program for Nebraska. Extension Forester Scott Josiah restarted the lapsed Champion Tree Program in cooperation with the Nebraska Community Forestry Council and the Nebraska Forest Service. The goal of the council is to promote public awareness of Nebraska's forest and tree resources by searching for big trees. Since the program had lapsed for several years, all previous champions were located and re-measured by council members. Check out the Nebraska champions at http://www.nfs.unl.edu/CTRegister.htm.
Oklahoma - The Oklahoma Department of Agriculture - Forestry Services and the Oklahoma Urban and Community Forestry Council hosted a 100th anniversary celebration of Arbor Week on March 20. The event included recognition of 20 Oklahoma towns that qualified for the Tree City USA designation and four utility companies designated as Tree Line USA conferred by The National Arbor Day Foundation. The organizations planned a day of events that included educational sessions at the Oklahoma City Zoo. A commemorative tree-planting ceremony was attended by the public at the State Capitol, and Gov. Frank Keating joined state legislators in the tree planting ceremony.
Eco-Motion is the work of numerous volunteers, agencies and corporations who have come together to make a difference in Oklahoma. The mobile environmental program powered by a unique bus with a compressed natural-gas engine visits schools, parks, and day-care centers. It is equipped with tools for teaching about the environment. Each activity used in the program complements curricula approved in the state and includes Project Learning Tree, Projects WILD and WET. Over 5,000 children are expected to be in the "eco-motion mode" during 2001. This will include 28 schools with five special events across the state. For more information, contact Mark Bays at 405/522-6150.
Tennessee will have a busy autumn with its urban forestry conference, "Sustaining the Urban Forest," on Oct. 11 and 12, and the Tennessee Tree Climbing Championship on the Oct. 13. In other Tennessee news, between unfilled positions and other problems, the West Tennessee Regional Urban Forestry position is still open. This is good news for potential candidates because it gives them a chance to get on the State of Tennessee personnel register. For more information, Contact Bruce Webster, 615-837-5436 or bwebster@mail.state.tn.us
Utah has 31 Tree Cities, up from 28 last year. The state has 237 incorporated cities and towns, for 13 percent, or about 44 percent of the population listed under Tree Cities. Utah includes two TreeLine companies in press releases, and the two utilities provide their own public relations about TreeLine recognition. At the state Arbor Day ceremony and tree planting, the Arbor Day poster contest winners are recognized in grades K-6. The 5th-grade winner is sent to Nebraska for the national contest. The National Arbor Day contest was started as a result of Utah's state contest about 9 years ago. Dave Schen from the Utah office went to Nebraska and encouraged a national contest.
The 2002 Winter Olympics are coming to Utah. The state has received $500,000 from Congress to plant trees in anticipation of the event. Request for Proposals (RFPs) were solicited through the nonprofit TreeUtah to the locals and so far they have planted nearly 3,000 caliper-sized trees in more than three dozen projects. For more information, contact Tony Dietz at 801/533-4111 or nrslf.tdietz@state.ut.us.
Background: In 1997 at the National Urban Forest Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, a significant number of attendees, directly involved in tree-planting and maintenance, decided to have a non-agenda meeting to share views and discuss issues. This group was comprised of representatives of State Urban Forest Councils (SUFCs), many of whom were also members of volunteer-based community tree-planting organizations; some State Urban Forest Coordinators; and a few representatives of the USDA Forest Service. The majority of attendees recognized a need for communication among SUFCs to share successes and pitfalls, and to spread the word about the good work they were doing. Some SUFCs were frustrated by a lack of federal and state support/recognition, while others basked in both. Perhaps most important, this meeting offered an opportunity for SUFCs to represent a national voice.
Recently, a Grassroots Summit Leadership Team (GRSLT) has been established, and two Grassroots Summits have been held -- the first in October 1998 in Wintergreen, VA; the second in September 2000 in Nebraska City, NE. The Leadership Team communicates via teleconferences and face-to-face pre-conferences throughout the year. With the help of the USDA Forest Service and TreeLink.org, the urbnrnet (Urban Natural Resources Network) listserve assists in communication among SUFCs and other interested groups.
The group is currently forming committees in preparation for the 2002 Summit in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, Sept. 9. Co-Chairs are Alice Ewen Walker, Executive Director of the Alliance for Community Trees, and Jerri J. LaHaie, Executive Director of the Alabama Urban Forestry Association. If you would like more information, please send email to aufa@prodigy.net
Minorities Becoming Majorities in Cities [back to top]
(From The New York Times, April 30, 2001, By Eric Schmitt)
For the first time, nearly half of the nation's 100 largest cities are home to more blacks, Hispanics, Asians and other minorities than whites, an analysis of the latest census figures shows. While the population of the country's fastest-growing cities, like Las Vegas and Phoenix, increased in all racial and ethnic categories, the vast majority of American cities - 71 of the top 100 - lost white residents. As a result, non-Hispanic whites are now a minority of the total population living in the 100 largest urban centers. Even as whites were leaving many urban cores for suburbs and beyond, the nation's largest cities gained 3.8 million Hispanic residents, a 43 percent increase from a decade ago.
The mixture of white flight from downtown's and the influx of Hispanics, in particular, underscores the extent to which immigration and higher birth rates among the foreign- born are changing the complexion of cities, fueling a renaissance in some urban centers and forcing civic leaders to confront wrenching decisions on how to cope with a new and fast- changing citizenry. "What this shows is the volatility and complexity of change in the United States today," said Bruce Katz, Director of Brookings Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy.
The shifting ethnic and racial balance of urban populations may force cities to rethink how they structure and deliver health care, public education and general municipal services to typically younger and larger minority families, the researchers said (Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy at the Brookings Institution). The makeover of the nation's urban profile is already under way. In Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa, a high school dropout who went on to become speaker of the California Assembly, is hoping to ride the city's surging Latino population into office as the city's first Hispanic mayor since 1872.
In Chicago, which gained 208,000 Hispanics in the decade to fuel its first overall population increase since 1950, Mayor Richard M. Daley has championed a revival plan to improve neighborhoods, renovate old buildings and spruce up public places with trees and flowers. Some cities, however, are struggling. Detroit's white population plunged 53 percent in the last decade, as the city's overall population dipped below one million for the first time in 80 years.
The Brookings analysis focused on cities, but the conclusion that Hispanics are displacing whites as an increasing share of the population is true even in many suburbs. Cities, however, have their own changing demographic profile. Whites are now a majority in 52 of the biggest 100 cities, down from 70 in 1990, researchers found. Many cities, including Boston, Los Angeles and Dallas, would have lost population over all in the 1990s were it not for big gains in the number of Hispanics, the researchers found.
"The most important factor for public officials to be aware of in the next 10 to 20 years is that the vitality of cities will depend on their ability to attract and be a hospitable environment for minorities," said John R. Logan, director of the Lewis Mumford Center for Comparative Urban and Regional Research at the State University of New York at Albany. "At the moment, minority populations are perceived largely in terms of potential problems in providing public services, or for their potential for creating new political divisions, instead of in terms of the contributions they're making to the vitality of the city," Mr. Logan said.
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