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2020 i-Tree Online Academy Starts Jan 22 – Reg Due Jan 10
2020 i-Tree Academy Starts January 22 – Registration Extended to Jan. 10
A new on-line course, called the i-Tree Academy, will be offered in 2020 and registration is now open! The NYSUFC is a member of the i-Tree Academy Planning Team, with our Executive Secretary Liana Gooding as point person. Full Details here
The class starts January 22, will be 5 months in length and includes a bi-monthly, online web session, completion of self-paced learning modules, assignments, and completion of a final student project. Students will be able to focus on a specific urban forestry issue of interest to them.
i-Tree is a state-of-the-art, software suite from the USDA Forest Service, Davey Tree Experts and other partners that provides urban and rural forestry analysis and benefits assessment tools. The i-Tree tools can help strengthen forest management and advocacy efforts by quantifying forest structure and the environmental benefits that trees provide.
i-Tree Planting Calculator Analysis of Buffalo’s Fall 2018 Tree Plantings
As part of the first i-Tree Online Academy, participants were asked to complete a comprehensive final capstone project that demonstrated their ability to utilize the i-Tree tools to analyze trees in their community or to engage community residents in examining the greenspace in their city or town. Projects were developed by each student and they were responsible to carry out all aspects of the design, planning, and implementation of each program.
Buffalo City Forester Ross Hassinger’s project involved the City’s 2018 street tree planting. In the fall season (Oct 15-Dec 31) of 2018, the city of Buffalo put out bids for a local licensed landscape company to plant 56 street trees in the City in various locations as shown in the map above. This is Ross’s report created after conducting his i-Tree Online Academy capstone project.
Congress Passes FY20 Spending Bill with Increase for UCF
The Sustainable Urban Forests Coalition (SUFC) keeps us posted on the federal funding for UCF. There’s good news in this year’s update. They say, “These gains (and level funds) don’t happen in a vacuum. Thank you all for your work this year to help us spread awareness about the importance of investing in programs that support urban and community forestry efforts across the country. We look forward to working with you all to make further strides in the new year!”
Congress passed a bipartisan spending bill on December 19 for Fiscal Year (FY) 2020, which includes a number of exciting wins for SUFC priorities. Here’s a quick rundown:
Top Five NYSUFC Blog Posts of 2019
#1 Transplanting and a Deeper Look at “Fall Hazards”
Encore! Encore! Originally published on the blog in 2015, this post continues to be highly relevant to our blog readers; in the lifetime of the post, it’s been viewed more than 5300 times. Former NYC Director of Street Tree Planting Matt Stephens and NYSUFC Editor Michelle Sutton coauthored this story questioning commonly held beliefs about “fall hazards,” mostly as it applies to B&B trees, but they also discuss the interaction of the fall season with other production methods, like bare root. Nina Bassuk helped craft the section called “The Five Branches of Transplanting Success,” which will be of interest to anyone planting trees.
Underutilized Trees for Urban Use: Japanese Snowbell
Japanese snowbell (Styrax japonica) is often confused with its Styracaceae family cousin, Carolina silverbell (Halesia carolina). While their flowers are similarly white, pendulous, and bearing yellow stamens, their foliage and fruit are very different. Japanese snowbell foliage is glossy and elliptic-obvate, with leaf tips curving upwards, and its fruits (drupes) look like little green (and eventually brown) olives; you’ll recall Carolina silverbell has longer, matte/dull leaves, with fruits that are football-shaped.
Green Teens Club Produces Phenomenal Tree ID Guide
The Council received an email from Tyler of Green Teens Club, a national club creating online green resources and doing acts of service in communities. “We are made up of high school student volunteers, but parents and siblings often join in to help out on our projects,” Tyler says. “Teens from anywhere in the country can join Green Teens. We aren’t affiliated with any one school, but I believe some schools honor our volunteer hours for service hour requirement credit. We are funded by contributions from the families of volunteers.”
Green Teens created a superb, scientifically sound, and visually snappy Tree Identification Guide. You could not ask for a better introduction to Tree ID principles and terminology.
Green Teens are affiliated with Tree Musketeers, whose website has a series of guides in the same pleasing format on subjects ranging from birdwatching to photosynthesis to getting a forestry degree online.
2019 SMA Conference Report-Back (in Pictures)
Recently, Council members such as Past President Andy Hillman, current Vice President Secretary Steve Harris, Board Members Lori Brockelbank and Mike DeMarco, and Council Editor Editor Michelle Sutton attended the Annual Conference of the Society of Municipal Arborists (SMA). It was held November 18-19 in Cleveland, Ohio, just prior to the Partners in Community Forestry Conference on November 20-21.
Monday afternoon featured a sunny green infrastructure field trip by bus, followed by the SMA Fun Run, Walk, or Watch, which raises money for the Urban Forest Foundation. That was followed by a reunion of Municipal Forestry Institute graduates and their friends.
New Career Pathways, Urban Wood Use Guides from Vibrant Cities Lab
Career Pathways Action Guide
Across the country, urban forestry employers face an unprecedented labor shortage. More than 7,000 positions are projected to open in tree maintenance and plant health care through 2026, not including another 95,000 positions in landscaping.
Who will fill these slots? Well, the right people may already be right around the corner from where more trees and tree maintenance are needed most. Learn more in the Career Pathways Action Guide, recently launched on the Vibrant Cities Lab!
Buffalo City Forester Ross Hassinger on Partners in Community Forestry Conference
