Aside from the professional relation-
ships forged, I also deeply appreciated:
• The focus on creativity, visioning, and inclusion;
• Detailed tips and simulations (with and without
notice!) on how best to deal with the media; and
• Guided opportunities to reflect on lead-
ership styles and legacy planning.
A lasting takeaway for me in the Communications
Leadership session was to constantly frame and return
to the "why" of the work, whether at the level of
Board and staff development, organizational collab-
orations, volunteer and community engagement, or
media relations. In each case, we can best enlist peo-
ple's interest, buy-in—and eventually, whole-hearted
empowerment—to protect and expand our urban
forests if we focus on such basic questions as:
• Why do we care?
• Why should we take action?
• What's in it for me (or the people
we seek to cultivate)?
A quote I keep referring back to is, "It's not
about the trees, it's about what the trees do
for us and what we do for the trees."
One fabulous resource I learned about is
TreePeople's 22 Benefits of Trees.
I also deeply appreciated the invitation to share
a little bit about our Greater Newburgh Parks
Conservancy collaborative Environmental Justice
Fellowship program, and hearing from others
across the country who are deeply immersed in
racial justice and equity around urban forestry.
I look forward to staying in touch with the MFI Class of
2021 learners and instructors and am grateful for the
support from SMA, NYSUFC, and NYSDEC/NY ReLeaf that
allowed me to be a part of this growing network.
Kathy enjoyed presenting to her MFI cohort about the
Greater Newburgh Parks Conservancy Environmental
Justice Fellowship program, which launched in 2021.
urban-forestry.com 17
"It's not about the trees,
it's about what the
trees do for us and what
we do for the trees."
