URBAN AND COMMUNITY FORESTRY UPDATE: NEWS YOU CAN USE
January 27, 2004
FS BUDGET NEWS
FY2004
UCF Budget
In order to meet
the appropriations caps established by congressional leadership, the
Appropriations Committee on Interior and Related Agencies was forced to apply
an across the board rescission, amounting to a reduction of 1.21% of agency
funding. Total amount appropriated for UCF in FY2004 is reduced to nearly
$34.875 million. In FY2001, $35.7 million was received.
Congress has directed the Forest Service to present to the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations by April 1, 2004, a report describing the current allocation methodology and one or more alternative methodologies that focus additional emphasis on program performance. The formulae used to distribute funds to each state is under revision.
Watershed
Forestry Assistance Program Signed into Law
A Watershed
Forestry Assistance Program (WFAP) has been created in the Forest Service. The
WFAP includes two major components familiar to the state/federal partnership:
Increasing the provision of technical watershed expertise, and Information to
enhance watershed management on rural and urban forest lands.
GRANTS
The federal government has launched a new web site containing information about finding and applying for all federal grant programs. The web site, http://www.grants.gov, is a centralized, online process to find and apply for over 900 grant programs from the 26 Federal agencies.
EPA Offers Environmental
Education Grants - Deadline: February 2004
The Grant
Program sponsored by EPA's Office of Environmental Education supports
environmental education projects that enhance the public's awareness,
knowledge, and skills to make informed decisions that affect environmental
quality. http://www.epa.gov/enviroed/grants.html
Environmental
Restoration Program - U.S. Army Corps of Engineers - Deadline: None
The objective of
Section 1135 and 206 of the Water Resource Development Act of 1986 provides
authority to restore degraded ecosystem structure, function, and processes that
provide a more natural condition, including restoration activities. http://www.hecsa.usace.army.mil/pubactv.html
Five-Star
Restoration Program - Deadline: March
The Five-Star
Restoration Program provides modest financial assistance on a competitive basis
to support community-based wetland, riparian, and coastal habitat restoration
projects that build diverse partnerships and foster local natural resource
stewardship through education, outreach, and training activities. Learn more at
http://nfwf.org/programs/5star-rfp.htm.
Philanthropic
Information
Non-profits may
find information on this site to you and partners. http://philanthropy.com.
NEW TOOLS
Hazard
Tree Rating
The Northeast
Center for Urban and Community Forestry has completed the development of a
Pocket PC application and PC desktop component that can be used to assist in
rating hazard trees. ftp://ftp2.fs.fed.us/incoming/ne/bloniarz/hazard_pda/.
Read about the Hazard assessment protocol, on which the application is based,
please take a look at the last page of the article, "Prioritizing Risk
Trees in a Community" which can be found at http://www.umass.edu/urbantree/publications/index.html
Tree Emergency Plan Worksheet
A tool for communities that outlined the many things that need to be in order and available in the event of a disaster. www.na.fs.fed.us/spfo/pubs/uf/utrmm
Tree
Care Information at Your Fingertips
Did you know
that ISA's tree-care consumer information brochures can be used for preparing
newsletter articles, press releases, and presentations? There are now 18
different titles and they can be accessed through the ISA at www.treesaregood.com.
Shigo
On-Line
New CD set by Dr
Alex L. Shigo http://www.chesco.com/~treeman/CDS1.html, and
Techno Tree Biology Dictionary Free
www.treedictionary.com
USDA
Releases First Annual Natural Resources Inventory
The USDA Natural
Resources Conservation Service has released its first annual National Resources
Inventory (NRI). The NRI provides comprehensive and reliable information on
various natural resource conditions and trends on non-federal lands, such as
soil erosion, land use, urbanization and development. http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/technical/NRI/1997/obtain_data.html
Management
Planning Tool
Available
on-line: A basic "Guide to Completing a Street and Park Tree Management
Plan." The publication summarizes materials from the Forest Service and
the NADF http://www.umass.edu/urbantree/mgtplanwithguide.shtml
/
NEW PUBLICATIONS
"Urban Tree Risk Management: A Community Guide to Program Design and Implementation" is now on-line at www.na.fs.fed.us/spfo/pubs/uf/utrmm This fully-illustrated, easy to read, training manual is designed to improve public safety and protect tree health by assisting communities to design, adopt, and implement tree-risk management programs; and training field staff to detect, assess, and correct hazardous defects in urban trees.
Urban
Forestry Factsheets On-line
A series of
U&CF fact sheets developed by Cornell Extension following ice storms in
western New York state, have been updated by the Davey Resource Group and the Forest
Service Northeast Center for U&CF, and links have been added, connecting
the reader to additional resources. http://www.umass.edu/urbantree/factsheets
Fact
Sheets: Why invest in Trees?
The
Massachusetts Urban Forestry Program has a number of fact sheets at their web
site on various community tree issues including "Why Invest in City / Town
Trees" at www.state.ma.us/dem/programs/forestry/urban/WhyInvest-0301.pdf.
A
Guide to Greening Neighborhoods, Creating and Caring for Community Open Space
A great free
resource for community groups, non-profits, and governmental agencies! "A
Guide to Greening Neighborhoods: " is an easy to read handbook that
focuses on greening projects. www.parksandpeople.org/programs_great_parks.html.
Community Culture and
the Environment: Guide to Understanding a Community's Sense
of Place
(EPA) has
developed this compilation of tools and methods designed to provide leaders in
the environmental field a means for better understanding community values and
processes. http://www.epa.gov/ecocommunity/pdf/ccecomplete.pdf
Mid-Atlantic
Library Database
This Database is
designed to provide a fairly comprehensive listing of books, articles,
factsheets, brochures, videos, and other publications produced by partners in
the Mid-Atlantic area. efforts. http://na.fs.fed.us/wv/urban/
Marketing
Urban Forestry
The Western
Center for Urban Research has a well done marketing publication called
""Planting the Seeds of Success, Marketing the Community Forest"
It can be down-loaded as a pdf at: http://wcufre.ucdavis.edu/products/1/cufr_161.pdf.
Harvesting
Urban Timber
The first text-reference
manual deals with the new aspect of looking at urban forest tree removals as
new assets in lieu of the historic viewpoint. http://www.harvestingurbantimber.com/book.html.
Reducing
Tree Root Damage
"Reducing
Infrastructure Damage by Tree Roots: A Compendium of Strategies" is now
available to help you with your tree root problems. You can obtain a copy from
the Western Chapter ISA at 530-892-1118 or through their website at www.wcisa.net
City
Park Management Practices
The Trust for
Public Land (TPL) has released a report on the nation's park systems, "The
Excellent City Park System: What Makes It Great, and How to Get There." http://www.lgean.org/html/whatsnew.cfm?id=611
Tree
Risk Management
"Urban Tree
Risk Management: A Community Guide to Program Design and Implementation"
is now on-line! http://www.na.fs.fed.us/spfo/pubs/uf/utrmm/.
This fully-illustrated, easy to read, training manual is designed to improve
public safety and protect tree health by assisting communities to design,
adopt, and implement tree risk management programs.
Community
Tree Planting Guide
The following
URL links to a USDA Forest Service publications in the Northeast. The 10th item
on the list is from the Tree Trust in Minnesota -- The Community Tree Planting
Guide. http://www.na.fs.fed.us/spfo/pubs/misc.htm.
Bare
Root Tree Planting Methods
Cornell Urban
Horticulture Institute has method, guidelines, training materials, etc,
available online at http://www.hort.cornell.edu/department/faculty/bassuk/uhi/BAREROOT.PDF.
"Landscape Tree Factsheets," the new title of the Third Edition of the former "Street Tree Factsheets" is now available from the Penn. State University , $30.00, shipping included. Call toll-free 877-345-0691, for Visa or MasterCard orders.
How
Cities Use Parks for Green Infrastructure
The American
Planning Association document can be found at http://www.greeninfrastructure.net/?article=2073.
CONSERVATION EDUCATION
Kids
Perspective of Urban Forests
A new
interactive CD-ROM titled "The Forest Where Ashley Lives" is now
available from Iowa State University Extension. The CD contains a version for
teachers and students: http://www.extension.iastate.edu/Publications/PM1812.pdf
Urban Forestry Laboratory Exercises for middle/high school students: http://www.na.fs.fed.us/spfo/pubs/uf/lab_exercises/cover.htm
Planting
Trees in Your Community Forest
This easy-to-read 40-page
publication produced by Penn State Uni. is a primer on the importance of trees
in the community. It includes tree-related puzzles, projects, and activities
for 9- to 109-year-olds. http://pubs.cas.psu.edu/FreePubs/uh125.html
WEBSITES
www.treelink.org – The urban forestry website for almost everything.
http://www.oasisnyc.net/ - OASIS (Open Accessible Space Information System) is a one-stop, interactive mapping resource to enhance the stewardship of open space for the benefit of all New York City residents.
Vacant
Land Management
Check out the
Pennsylvanian Horticultural Society for excellent information on managing
vacant land in cities: www.pennsylvaniahorticulturalsociety.org.
Wood
Chip Innovation
www.MyFreeChips.com is a brand new
website that is an easy to use locator of people who want wood chips, firewood,
tree removal, tree pruning, and general tree care.
U.S.
Cities on-line
Covers over 2600
US cities with detailed information on demographics http://www.ersys.com/index.htm
More
News From Space
NASA Sprawl
Images that live and breathe: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2002/11oct_sprawl.htm?list783672
USDA
Plant Hardiness Map
The new March
2003 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map is available on line.
http://www.ahs.org/pdfs/USDA_Map_3.03.pdf
(Map loads slowly)
Urban Forestry: Benefits and Drawbacks of City Trees - http://cufr.ucdavis.edu/index.html
New
Green Infrastructure Website
The partnerships has recast the website (http://www.greeninfrastructure.net).
It's fast, easy to navigate, and still full of information. The site is
organized by geographic region, which makes the examples more relevant.
Project
for Public Spaces
Project for
Public Spaces is dedicated to creating and sustaining public spaces that build
communities. The site contains a number of best practices information on such
places as parks, plazas, streets, public buildings. http://www.pps.org/
Adding
Green to the Top of the City
Green roofs are
one potential option for adding green surfaces back into dense urbanized
landscape where there are often few other options left. Check out: www.greenroofs.com or www.communityresources.org/greenroof.html
Parking
Lot Design
This site contains
design specs for Parking Lot shading and Storm water retention design. http://www.cityofsacramento.org/planning/longrange/shading_guide.pdf
ISA
Launches Spanish Language Website
Publications
available for purchase in Spanish and links to documents in Spanish. The
address is www.ISAHispana.com
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE USDA FOREST SERVICE U&CF PROGRAM CONTACT: