City Trees is a premier publication focused on urban + community forestry. In each issue, you’ll learn how to best manage the trees in your community and more!
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/26931
THE URBAN FOREST FOUNDATION You Get What You Pay For Live oaks (Quercus virginiana) Brook Green Gardens, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina • Photo by Chris Deis A ll of us, whether public or private sector, are plenty used to lean times by now. Living through historic economic events (good or bad) changes us in subtle ways. Entire generations can be affected. Few if any of the people who read City Trees have escaped the effects of this recession, but I hope that most of us feel like we’ve become a little wiser as a result. (On the flip side, if as they say, “Ignorance is bliss,” then there are still plenty of ecstatic people out there.) Regardless of your political leanings, economic cycles and the laws of physics apply to us all. Doing “more with less” is absolutely possible if there are innovations to be made or inefficiencies to be eliminated. But if you are already innovative, productive, and efficient after years of experience in the trenches, then doing less with less may be the inevitable outcome of lean times. That is of course public sector heresy, as we humans by nature want something for nothing. Urban forestry professionals: There is no free lunch! (By now you’re wondering, yikes, just how many clichés can this guy squeeze into this article??) 22 Anything of real value comes with a price, and the cost of accomplishing things of real value is an invest- ment. The Urban Forest Foundation (UFF) is an excel- lent way for each of us to invest in our profession’s future. The UFF is a 501(c)3 non-profit that partners with the SMA to invest in the people who practice urban forestry. Programs like the Municipal Arborist Exchange and the Municipal Forestry Institute change lives and careers. The payback from our investments in these programs and in our fellow professionals will compound in ways that are impossible to predict. Our interdisciplinary vocation is uniquely positioned to improve our commu- nities and our planet now and for future generations. I know you agree, or you would have stopped reading at the second cliché. Take the next step today, and make your tax deductible contribution to the UFF. It’s easy to do online at www.urban-forestry.com. Thanks for doing your part to build a better tomorrow. —Steve Cothrel, Superintendent of Parks and Forestry, Upper Arlington, Ohio City Trees