around 1000 members. Also, our Citizen Pruner
Program, which we modeled after the program
in Ithaca, New York, continues to move forward.
As part of this program, we train Thunder Bay
residents at no cost to them about pruning trees
and then require a number of volunteer hours in
return. This has been a great program not only
for organized pruning efforts for our municipal
trees; it has also increased the urban forestry
knowledge base and interest of the members of
our community.
We now have a Tree Stewardship program,
which is a cost-sharing, accelerated municipal
tree replacement program. Participants in this
program don't have to wait the current two-year
period to receive a replacement tree. If they are
willing to pay 1/3 of the cost, the City will pay
another 1/3 with the remaining 1/3 being picked
up by outside sponsors. These have included
Ontario Power Generation, Thunder Bay Hydro,
Walmart-Evergreen and countless private donations that have included proceeds from weddings and even birthday parties! To date we have
received approximately $90,000 in total donations.
RH: In the past, you've mentioned the
importance of your relationship with the
media—is this still the case? How have
things changed with new social media
outlets?
Thunder Bay City Forester Shelley Vescio leads tour of urban trees for Lakehead University forestry students.
14
City Trees
