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as urban nurseries, with folks taking in small
grow bag pots of seedlings that are 1-2 years
old and growing them on for the City. "We
recently harvested the first 200 or so," McQuillan
says. "People have been really keen to partici-
pate. I could see this become a rebate program
paying homeowners back for their water use."
Des Moines applied for and received word of an
IRA grant for 2.5 million dollars to plant trees
in the most underserved Des Moines neigh-
borhoods as designated by the Biden-Harris
Administration Climate and Economic Justice
Screening Tool (CEJST). The funding will enable
five years of intense planting, with a focus on
large canopy trees for shade provision. "We will
be planting in spring and fall—but we're favoring
fall more over time because the Iowa summers
are getting hotter. In that scenario, increasingly,
fall is better for establishment," McQuillan says.
Where does UCFS Accreditation come into the
mix? "It's invaluable to show to city managers
so they have concrete metrics of our value
and success," McQuillan says. "I also appre-
ciate the way that UCFS connects city foresters
to one another and provides CEUs through
its excellent, pragmatic Learning Series."
In one of the Des Moines Forestry Department's
instructional videos, Urban Forestry Project
Manager Dan Just shows homeowners how
to overwinter their Urban Nursery trees.
Photo Courtesy City of Des Moines
More than 50,000 trees
have been distributed thus
far through Des Moines's
Tiny Tree Giveaway. Photo
Courtesy City of Des Moines
