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/723399
www.urban-forestry.com 39 Trees are a recognized and significant asset to communities. For community trees to remain an asset and to increase in value they need care and regular mainte- nance. The Municipal Tree Care and Management in the United States: A 2014 Urban and Community Forestry Census of Tree Activities is the fifth report over 40 years that addresses the many approaches communities take to manage public trees. It has been over 20 years since the last rendition in 1993. We are grateful to the 667 communities that provide data for this project. Follow http://bit.ly/MuniTree which contains pdf versions of the report, the Executive Summary only, and the technical appendix. The first four of a six-part Arborist News Series is also at this site along with a paper on the effects of EAB on municipal budgets that was possible as a result of the dataset. Municipal Tree Care and Management in the United States: A 2014 Urban and Community Forestry Census of Tree Activities Emmerich says the most surprising thing about MFI was "how quickly a group of people who have never met before can bond and become so cohesive," she says. "We were there a week and by day two, our peer learning group was really tight." Ostensibly the participants were there for leadership development—and Emmerich says her own leadership skills definitely got a boost—but she says she also got so much out of the informal conversations with people in our field from such diverse places as British Columbia, California, and Georgia. "Hearing about the programs and pol- icies in their municipalities gave me a lot of ideas to bring back to Warwick," she says. Emmerich has extensive experience speaking before preservation boards and municipal leaders, but even so she found the "media morning" at MFI extremely valuable. "They basically stick Be Part of MFI 2017! February 19-24 Details to Come: www.urban-forestry.com Karen visits with Oakdale, MN City Forester & Environmental Services Superintendent Chris Larson at MFI 2016. Photo by Owen Croy a microphone in your face and ask you about a hypothetical disaster, giving you practice at how to respond to the press in a calm way and to promote your programs at the same time," she says. "Many of my fellow MFIers talked about how helpful they found that part of the training to be." One of the activities from MFI that Emmerich took back to the office was the personality test that participants took at the beginning of the week. "I thought that was really interesting and I asked everyone in my office to take it," she says. "It illuminates how we interact with one another, and how we can take stock of our strengths and weaknesses and surround ourselves with people who can complement us." She says that forming that well-rounded cohort makes for a good working situation and is bet- ter for the clients. Is there anything more Emmerich would add? "I say to everybody that I meet that urban foresters are some of the nic- est people I've ever met, who are truly devoted to their work and to promoting urban forestry. And urban forestry is growing exponentially! I'm so happy to be a part of it."