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How Kingston Used its EPF Grant Dollars–and Advice from the Grant Writers

This Q&A is with Kingston Assistant Planner Kyla DeDea, one of the grant writers for Kingston’s successful EPF Round 13 grant application.

What was the work Kingston needed grant money for?

Kyla DeDea: The City of Kingston applied to hire a professional tree service to conduct a street tree and parkland inventory. The inventory included trees within the street rights-of-way and improved areas of Kingston’s Parks. The inventory also included identification of existing stumps to be removed and identified planting sites for future tree installations. We felt that adding these additional items to the inventory was important to assist in making informed decisions on where to plant new trees.

After being awarded and receiving quotes for the inventories, we were able to utilize the remaining funds to complete a Tree Management Plan. Both the inventories (July 2018) and the management plan (Sept 2018) were done by ArborPro. This was a great benefit to be able to complete both plans under the same grant. It put the City of Kingston in the position to be able to apply for funds to do much needed tree maintenance.

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Prospect Park’s EPF Grant Yields Superb Tree Management Plan

Image by Elizabeth Jeegin Colley for the Prospect Park Alliance

Round 15 of the Environmental Protection Fund grants for urban forestry related activities will open later in 2019. Here on the blog, we continue to showcase work that emerged from successful grants and give advice to future applicants from the folks behind those successful grants.

Prospect Park contains Brooklyn’s largest indigenous forest and sustains more than 10 million visits a year. Its 536 acres include woodland, lawn, wetlands, lake, meadow, zoo, ice rink, athletic fields, and more. It’s managed by the Prospect Park Alliance in collaboration with NYC Parks. Prospect Park Alliance Director of Landscape Management John Jordan had several key roles to play in the preparation of the Alliance’s grant application for Environmental Protect Fund monies, grants that are managed and allocated by NYSDEC.

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Urban Wood Academy, Sept 11-13, 2019 – Now Accepting Applications

Applications are now being accepted for the 2nd annual Urban Wood Academy, co-hosted by the USDA Forest Service, Humanim, and the City of Baltimore, with engagement by Dovetail Partners, Quantified Ventures, and Room & Board. 

The Academy workshop will be held September 11-13, 2019 in Baltimore, MD (travel days: Sept 10 and afternoon of Sept 13).

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For Arbor Day 2019, Hofstra Adds Pink-Flowering Dogwoods to its Campus Arboretum

All photos by Kathy King

On April 24, four pink-flowering dogwood trees were planted on the Hofstra campus in Hempstead, Long Island in celebration of Arbor Day 2019. The planting is part of an ongoing effort by the university’s Tree Advisory Committee to create a greener Hofstra.

“Urban street trees, which can be seen on Hofstra’s campus, provide benefits economically and psychologically that far exceed what the eye can see,” said biology major Penelope Ramos ’20. “Hofstra strives to be at the forefront of educating and setting the example for surrounding local governments and future generations.”

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Thirty-Three Urban Forest Inventories/Mgmt Plans to Inform Your UFMP

The Council now has 33 professional Urban Forest Inventories/Mgmt Plans from around New York State collected for your perusal. Most of the inventories/plans were funded by grants from the Environmental Protection Fund (aka cost-share grants), with applications evaluated by NYSDEC staff. This compendium of Plans could be a very helpful resource under any circumstances but especially as you think about your community’s grant application for EPF grants Round 15 later this year.

According to grants administrator and DEC Environmental Program Specialist Michelle Higgins, under Round 14, there were 29 municipalities or not-for-profit (NFP) groups who received funding for Tree Inventory/Community Forestry Management Plans, 8 munis or NFPs who received Tree Maintenance grants, 13 munis or NFPS who received grants for Tree Planting, and 2 Cornell Cooperative Extension agencies (Dutchess and Nassau Counties) who received grants for Education Programming.

Urban Forest Inventories, Management Plans, and Reports:

Akwesasne Community Forest
Batavia
Binghamton
Canandaigua 
DeWitt
Fulton
Ithaca
Kingston
Long Beach
Mamaroneck
Massena
Middletown
Friends of Mt Hope Cemetery
Mount Kisco
NYC by Neighborhood
Newburgh
Nyack
Ogdensburg, Part I
Ogdensburg, Part II
Ossining
Prospect Park, Brooklyn
Red Hook, Town
Red Hook, Village
Rochester
Rye’s Crawford Park
Saratoga Springs
Schenectady
Scottsville
Syracuse
Warwick
Washington DC (performed by Cornell UHI Team)
Watertown
Watervliet

Arbor Day Ceremony in Albany Honors Mary Kramarchyk Beck, DEC Poster Contest Winners

NYSDEC Urban Forestry Program Coordinator Gloria Van Duyne presented a framed copy of the Arbor Day 2019 poster to winner Paul Bergwall, who is from the Rochester area. Paul worked for Kodak for many years and then became an art teacher. He and his wife were thrilled to be in attendance and to see his photograph as a poster (printed by International Paper).

On April 26, NYSDEC and the NYS Office of General Services (OGS) hosted a ceremony in honor of Arbor Day 2019. The gathering included members of the State Arbor Day Committee and state and local officials, including Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan. A London planetree (Platanus x acerifolia) was planted on the State Street side of East Capitol Park, near the corner of the Capitol Building, to replace one that was lost during a storm. (Each year, a tree is planted ceremonially on the Capitol grounds).

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UHI Produces Plan for a Sustainable National Mall Treescape

Barb Neal (left), Bryan Denig, and Nina Bassuk on the National Mall.

In hot and steamy June of 2017, a team of researchers and arborists from Cornell University’s Urban Horticulture Institute (UHI), headed up by UHI Director Nina Bassuk, worked dawn to dusk evaluating the condition of the American elms and soils on the National Mall in Washington DC. This iconic landscape is often referred to as “America’s Front Lawn,” and the National Mall turf grass was fully renovated between 2010 and 2016, involving infrastructure upgrades, at a cost of $40 million dollars. Now, UHI hopes the Mall trees will get the same level of attention.

Bassuk and then-graduate student Yoshiki Harada worked together on soil evaluation, taking 108 soil samples back to Cornell, while ISA Board Certified Master Arborist Barbara Neal and UHI Visiting Fellow Bryan Denig performed an ISA Level 2 evaluation of the National Mall’s 550 trees. Bassuk and team also used ground penetration radar on a sample of 16 of the trees to find out precisely where the roots are.

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David Moore Wins Arbor Day Foundation Trailblazer Award

Congratulations, David! You are indeed a Trailblazer and very much worthy of this recognition. All best from your many friends at the NYSUFC.

The Council is jubilant that Past President David Moore has won the Arbor Day Foundation (ADF) Trailblazer Award, given to a professional under 35 who has made exceptional contributions to arboriculture and/or urban forestry. A video about David’s work is in the making (and we’ll share here on the blog as soon as it’s available). From the ADF press release:

“The title of Senior Tree Supervisor at the City of Oakland, California, belies David Moore’s age and accomplishments. During his tenure at New York City Parks, David developed a sophisticated system of tree procurement that is a model for urban foresters across the country, and he served as co-chair of the MillionTreesNYC committee. He also served as president of the New York State Urban Forestry Council from 2015-17, where he was highly regarded for his organizational and leadership skills.”

The Trailblazer Award description: “This award recognizes an individual under the age of 35 who has demonstrated leadership in forestry, community forestry, research, or tree care during the past five years. The Award winner will exhibit a collaborative spirit that inspires others to give their time, effort, and resources to improve our understanding of trees, tree planting, or tree care.”

CONGRATS, DAVID!!

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