City Trees

Forest Service, and Tree Canada. Ultimately, the result was a major increase in investment through the first urban forest strategic management plan approved by Oakville's Council. This plan serves as a model for other communities. For its leadership, Oakville was recognized as the Forest Capital of Canada in 2007 by the Canadian Forestry Association. Lobbying Lobbying refers specifically to advocacy efforts that attempt to influence legislation. Planning Advisor for the City of Montreal Anthony Daniel picked up a stone and carried it when he chose to deal with the need to manage Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) on a community-wide basis. Unlike many communities that choose to only deal with publically owned ash trees, Anthony led an initiative to manage the thousands of ash trees on private property. Ultimately a persuasive lobbying initiative resulted in Montreal City Council passing a by-law requiring private ash tree owners to act: either treat or remove their ash trees. Doing nothing is not an option. This is a new paradigm for EAB man- agement—a coordinated effort that serves as a model for other communities. This year the City of Montreal received a Legacy Award from the SMA for their leader- ship in managing EAB. Coalition Building & Public Engagement A coalition is a group of interdependent people focused on advancing a common cause. In the early 2000s, Walt Warriner, then the city forester for the City of Santa Monica, California and one of the original members of MFI's Teaching Cadre, picked up a stone and carried it. He chose to help his colleagues struggling in municipal urban forestry programs across his state to try and move their urban forestry programs forward. Walt met with a few like-minded individuals, including SMA Executive Director Jerri LaHaie. Their coalition's initiative would result in receiving a funding grant from the U.S. Forest Service to develop the curriculum that would become the Municipal Forestry Institute's Leadership Training Program. Since 2006, more than 600 men and women from a dozen countries have graduated from MFI. Political Capital Political Capital is our personal resources available to use in the decision-making process; namely, our reputation and our integrity. Our integrity is perhaps the only thing in our lives that we have complete control over. Only our decisions and no one else's define our integrity. Leaders can't accomplish their goals without a broad support base. This is why political capital is so important for lead- ers. In today's knowledge economy, power has less to do with control and more to do with influence. We gain that influence by developing political capital. It must be Leadership is not a throne upon which you sit. Leadership is a stone that you are the first to pick up and carry. But how do you obtain the confidence to know when and which stone to pick up? How do you sustain your ener- gy to carry that stone when times get tough? At MFI we identify four pillars of leadership: the right attitude, the right vision, feeling at peace with choosing the right vision, and sustaining it through mentors: (1) The right Attitude. Some people model the wrong attitude: "I'll believe it when I see it." That's backwards thinking again. At MFI, we feel the right attitude can be summed up as: "I'll see it when I believe it." Have a little faith. (2) The right Vision. We believe the right vision is based on this approach: "Celebrate what's right with the world." At MFI we learn to flip obstacles into opportunities. Why? Learning to live by celebrating what's right with the world gives us the energy to fix what's wrong. (3) Feeling at peace with our choice of the right Vision. To get to the right vision we need to spend time with ourselves and become comfortable with both asking and accepting the answer to: "Who am I?" (4) Sustaining our Vision through Mentors. We see Mentors as beacons of light. Shining examples as role models for us. Selfless leaders, without ego, show by example how to serve others and not only do their best in the world but do their best for the world. Let's look at the tools we teach at MFI: Advocacy When we advocate, we seek to influence some aspect of society, whether an appeal is to individuals about their behaviour, or to governments about their laws or programs. I picked up a stone and carried it when I chose to address the need for a new direction for Oakville's Forestry Program in 2005. This would result in the cre- ation of a report to Council that would have far reaching impacts entitled Oakville's Urban Forest: Our Solution to Our Pollution. My report advocated higher standards of management for Oakville's 1.9 million trees. Why? My logic covered the contributions to my community's health that Oakville's trees made through filtering all the major criteria pollutants emitted by local industry as quantified by an i-Tree Eco study. This study was con- ducted in partnership with this Faculty, the United States I picked up a stone and carried it … A B 18 CityTREES

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