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
Our park superintendent approached one of the commu- nity leaders to see if the association was interested in applying for the grant on behalf of the City. This seemed to be a simple request with a win-win resolution; how- ever, given past tensions, the challenge was to evenly divide the tasks so that each party was satisfied with their contribution towards preparing for the event. There was so much to do with so little time. I enlisted the help of three local nonprofit organizations. The first was the Urban Corps of San Diego County, with an extremely well trained and knowledgeable group of strong youthful workers. Second was the San Diego Regional Urban Forests Council, an organization made up of certified arborists, consulting arborists, urban for- esters, landscape architects and designers, educators, and government and private foresters. The third orga- nization I approached was the California Urban Forests Council, which advocates for California’s urban forests, creates educational materials, empowers residents to participate in urban forestation projects, develops and supports local, regional and statewide urban forestry programs, and manages the UVHC grants program. I also established a group of five extremely talented pro- fessional colleagues as team leaders who had strength and expertise in the various areas of arboriculture. We could now address the specifics of distributing fly- ers, soliciting volunteers, contacting possible sponsors and donors, and recruiting students at a local commu- nity college. Understanding the importance of involving local organizations and businesses, we began contact- ing them to help with donations of supplies and food needed to feed the volunteers during the event. I found that most of them were not even familiar with the term “urban forest” or even knew where MarLado Highlands Park was located. Every task required engaging someone or some group. The training I received from the Municipal Forestry Institute on volunteerism, nonprofit organizations, and gaining community support, as well as research on community involvement in preparation for taking the California Urban Forests Council Certified Urban Forester examination, all proved to be invaluable. Initially, coaching the organizing team was the most challenging task. The team understood the necessity to organize the various tasks; however, they questioned why the City would invest such effort to plant just a few more trees. They asked, “Why can’t the City just buy the trees and have our public works crew plant them? Wouldn’t that be less troublesome? Surely the City could somehow find money to fund the tree planting.” I explained that due to budget restraints the City really did not have the funds for replacing the trees. It would be up to our team to help meet the challenge and 20 Student volunteers watch a slope tree planting demo in MarLado Highlands Park. City Trees