This newsletter is sent electronically (via email or fax)around the first of each month to state urban forestry program coordinators and Forest Service urban forestry staff. Please print or copy this newsletter and distribute it to volunteer coordinators, state council chairs, and other interested individuals within your state. You can always find it on-line at www.treelink.org

Submissions to this newsletter are welcomed, and in fact, requested. Items suitable for inclusion are regional and national urban forestry information, state events, products, or innovations that can be replicated by other states, personnel notes, and notices of regional and national urban forestry events. Please submit a maximum of two paragraphs to Pam Louks by the 20th of the month for inclusion in the following month's edition.

NEXT DUE DATE FOR SUBMISSION: July 20, 2001

Compiled and Edited by:

Pamela Louks, Indiana Department of Natural Resources
(plouks@dnr.state.in.us) phone (317) 915-9390

Phillip D. Rodbell, USDA Forest Service - Northeastern Area
(prodbell@fs.fed.us) phone (610) 975-4133

Pepper Provenzano, TreeLink.org
(pepper@treelink.org)

"More than 80% of the nation's population lives in towns and cities. The 70 million acres of urban forests are in decline. It is estimated our nation's cities have 500-700 million vacant planting spaces and a backlog of 500 million trees in need of immediate maintenance work. Studies show that increasing tree cover in 7,000 selected urban areas nationwide would result in $100 billion in natural resource benefits each year, improve the quality of urban life, and stem the migration of people from cities to the surrounding countryside."

From Forest Service Farm Bill submittal on
Sustainable Forestry on Nonfederal Forestland

Exhibit B:
"The best place to experience anonymity, in fact, is in the middle of a big city . . . The aggravation of big-city life is enormous, but you at least have the satisfaction of knowing that no one cares a thing about you. All those other people may as well be trees." [!]

Louis Menand, The New Yorker Magazine, July 2, 2001

State Coordinators News

August question -Check the pulse of your council. How is it doing? Is it a partner with the state or does the state manage it? What is your council up to?

STATE OF THE STATES

July question-How many city foresters does your state have? How do you work with them and promote their position? What city department are they most generally housed in?  [back to top]

Ohio has over 60 communities that employ one or more city foresters. Large municipalities have several city foresters, while smaller communities designate only one individual to be responsible for managing their urban forest resource.

Because city foresters normally don't require organizational or technical assistance, we provide them, as well as other communities, with tree planting grant opportunities. Through competitive grants, successful city foresters can implement planting projects that their current municipal budgets don't cover. Additionally, we help facilitate information exchange among them. Each year, in cooperation with the Ohio State University's Urban Forestry Program, a City Foresters' Symposium is held. Only designated city foresters are invited to this forum, which provides them the opportunity to share information and discuss issues of mutual concern.

We advance their position in two main ways: (1) by using various media tools to promote urban forestry awareness among municipal administrators; and (2) by acting as objective third parties that can be called upon when disputes or sensitive local issues arise. Most city foresters operate within their municipality's parks and recreation department. --State Coordinator, Drew Todd

New Jersey's "City Forester" title could be applied to any number of paid employees and trained volunteers serving our 566 towns, 22 counties, and numerous military bases. New Jersey currently credentials about 235 Certified Tree Experts, who work across the state in a variety of professional positions such as state foresters, extension agents and arborists, many as part-time city and municipal foresters, and often as volunteers in their own communities. Our state laws also promote the establishment of Shade Tree Commissions (or committees or advisory boards) at the municipal and county level. Several municipalities have chosen to entrust tree care to their local Environmental Commissioners. The Community Forestry Program maintains a mailing list of 537 Municipal Shade Tree Contacts, or about one contact per town for about 95% of our towns. We also have 11 County Shade Tree Contacts who serve more than half our state at the county level.

We support the efforts of our city foresters through innovative legislation (NJ Shade Tree and Community Forestry Assistance Act, Certified Tree Expert Act, Shade Tree Commissions Act, or "No Net Loss" Act), free technical assistance, publications, training, Arbor Day seedlings and celebrations, Tree City USA, the NJ Tree Foundation, and the grants that we administer. Most paid city foresters work in either the Department of Public Works (sometimes called Department of Streets and Roads) or in the Department of Parks and Recreation, but there are several exceptions.

In other state updates

New Jersey has 117 Tree Cities with two of the original ones celebrating their 25th anniversary at a NJ Arbor Day Celebration held outdoors at the brand new Manalapan Arboretum, with over 300 guests and representatives from local and state government. The NJ Shade Tree and Community Forestry Assistance Act is also having a growing impact on the quality of NJ's community forests and the people who live in them. With 58 approved Community Forestry Management Plans in action and over 100 in progress, the state's 566 municipalities are on their way to achieving the level of natural resource care that their citizens deserve (not to mention the concurrent indemnification from tree-related liability cases). The very popular Treasure Our Trees preservation license plate established by the Act may soon be joined by a commercial vehicles version as the recently introduced bill works its way through our legislative system.

The recently amended, NJ "No Net Loss" Act, S254, mandates that whenever a state entity is about to deforest a half-acre or more, it must first obtain approval for a reforestation plan submitted to the Forest Service. The law lists a hierarchy of reforestation sites, including along streets and on public properties, if the trees cannot be planted on an adjacent land. The NJ Forest Service is working with the State Department of Transportation to create an equitable set of guidelines to assist those agencies in developing reforestation plans for all future impacted projects. -- Michael D'Errico, Regional Forester, CF Program Coordinator

New York City Dumps Become Forests  [back to top]

The Jamaica Bay Unit of Gateway National Park includes two former municipal dumps. The 400-acre toxic sites have wreaked havoc with the Bay's ecology and the hundred-foot mountains of buried trash have been eyesores to all who live nearby or pass on the Belt Parkway. The Daily News reported that the dump is being capped with plastic, covered with soil and planted with native trees, shrubs and grasses in a project started by the NYC Department of Environmental Protection and NYC Economic Development Corporation. Not reported was the good news that the plan includes the first beneficial re-use of decontaminated dredge material in NYC. In place of the stench that used to waft over East New York, the aroma of hollies, birch, cedar, hickory, maple, oak and pine trees should fill the air. There also will be trails for hiking and bicycling, picnic areas and perches for bird watching. The price is expected to be $221 million.

The Southern Urban Foresters recently announced the annual winners of their State Forestry Agency Personnel and Partnership awards. Susan Reisch, Urban Forester for the Georgia Urban Forestry Commission, and Cindy Zimar, assistant executive director of the National Tree Trust, were honored.

Reisch was cited for her work on a number of projects impacting urban forestry, including the development of the Georgia Urban Forestry Model, and providing leadership in the Critical Forestland Project, a study of forest canopy cover change. She also is noted for broadening the range of partners to include those not traditionally included in urban forestry but with impact on the urban forest, and for providing leadership in developing the Southern region's Strategic Urban Forestry Plan.

Zimar was recognized not only for her work at the Tree Trust, but also for serving as president of the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of ISA, co-founder of Fairfax (County) Releaf, being instrumental in developing the Mid-Atlantic Chapter's Arborist Certification program and serving as the chapter's liaison to the ISA. She is also an active member of the Virginia Urban Forest council, and is a Project Learning Tree facilitator.

The annual awards were presented at the Southern Group of State Foresters meeting. Both awards are judged on leadership, education, and technical assistance at the local, state and regional level. -- Bruce Webster, Tennessee CF Coordinator

ON THE NATIONAL FRONT

National Meeting of Coordinators  [back to top]

Registration forms were mailed in June. The Virginia Urban Forest Council will be fiscal agent for the event. All speakers have been contacted, but Paul Revell is still seeking representatives to present regional reports (West, North, and South). Please contact Paul if you are willing to represent your region to the whole group, revellp@dof.state.va.us

Will there be a CARA revival?  [back to top]

The House Resources Committee is planning to start its review of the Conservation and Reinvestment Act (CARA), which would put $3 billion of offshore oil and gas revenues toward conservation programs. The bill faces strong opposition from appropriators and property rights groups, but support from some environmental groups and a growing list of cosponsors. Last year, the measure passed the House by a 315-102 vote. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee cleared a slightly different version of the bill, but it never made it to the floor for a vote. Instead, a new funding category that benefited some CARA programs was inserted into the Interior and related agencies' appropriations bill for FY '01 (P.L. 106-291). That Title VIII category put $1.6 billion toward land acquisition, historic preservation, national land maintenance (including $4 million for Urban and Community Forestry). The amount is allowed to increase by $160 million per year for five more years, but it is subject to annual appropriations, and CARA supporters said that was no guarantee of funding.

The 2002 CARA bill (H.R. 701), would supply $3.1 billion per year from outer continental shelf oil and gas receipts to a variety of conservation programs: