Vermont Urban & Community Forestry Program

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Magdalene Murphy
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1 Vermont Urban & Community Forestry Program Program Update September December 2016 Desired Future Condition 1: Biological Diversity Conserve biological diversity across all landscapes. Strategies H M L 1.1 Identify and promote stewardship of community greenspaces such as town forests, village greens, and parks. 1.2 Epand awareness and implementation of planning for urban and community forests at local and regional scales. 1.3 Promote intentional development in villages and downtowns that support sustainable urban and community forests. 1.4 Recommend and create model urban and community forestry language for inclusion in town plans, local regulations, and state planning documents. Town Forests: We have established a working group to help move the town forest recreation planning grant forward. The group has been meeting regularly. To date, the group has identified a draft set of issues and opportunities to help fulfill needs and gaps, drafted a RFP to hire a contractor for the 10 community plans, and identified a need to engage the broader stakeholder group. To address the last element, we are planning a town forest recreation planning summit on January 24 snow date is the 25 th to help further flush our process. We have hired a facilitator and sent out a save the date'. Mark your calendars and join us! Urban and Community Forest Management: We wrapped up completing inventories, management plans, and technical tree training in 20 communities. This work was supported by a Forest Service grant and has helped to elevate our resources to support communities in understanding their public trees and enhancing their ability to care for them. To further support these communities, we offered them a full set up ANSI 300 tree care and offered 10 scholarships to attend NE ISA conference in Burlington. In a follow up survey to participating communities, there was an overwhelming appreciation for this work and testimonials on the positive on the ground outcomes. An analysis was completed on the data (16,673 trees!) to give us a better understanding of the makeup of Vermont s urban forest. Running the data through itree Streets, these trees are providing over $1.2 million annually in ecosystem services. The project was shared at the Partners in Community Forestry Conference in

2 Indianapolis and the Vermont Monitoring Cooperative Meeting. In addition to the 20 communities, we have also completed 7 additional inventories in communities and plan to continue to offer this type of support. Inventory and management tool for small communities: Elise continues to work at the regional level to support the development of inventory management tool. Forest Fragmentation: Submitted a USFS grant proposal to enhance landscape mapping tools, technical assistance, and outreach to municipalities in the preparation of including forest blocks and habitats for connectivity in town and regional plans by Project partners include Vermont Natural Resources Council, Fish & Wildlife Department, Central Vermont Regional Planning Commission, and Vermont Monitoring Cooperative. We epect notification of ranking in early Desired Future Condition 2: Forest Health and Productivity Maintain and enhance forest ecosystem health and productivity. Strategies H M L 2.1 Identify and facilitate research that improves our understanding of Vermont s urban and community forests Monitor for urban and community forest health and productivity including urban forest inventory and analysis (Urban FIA). Survey for potential urban and community forestry health threats, including non natives invasive species. 2.4 Epand resources to assist communities to prepare for, mitigate, and recover from emergency events to urban and community forests including severe weather and invasive pests. 2.5 Increase communities capacity to create resilient urban and community forests including growing or acquiring high quality trees. 2.6 Prevent the introduction, slow the spread, and eradicate where appropriate non native invasive species that impact urban and community forests. Urban Forest Monitoring

3 Supported efforts to assess the vegetation in three urban areas in Burlington for a long term monitoring study. This work was completed in collaboration with Vermont Monitoring Cooperative, and a service learning class at UVM s RSENR. Urban Forest Health Outreach and Education: VTinvasives website: o The site will be ready for a soft launch in January o VTinvasives E News: 2 produced. Community Preparedness: Continue to support communities interested in community preparedness. Campground Surveys: As part of our Forest Pest Outreach grant with the Agency of Agriculture, we will be conducting 20 private campground surveys and developing preparedness plans. We are currently developing a process to identify the campgrounds and determining the survey process and report components. Pest Outreach Activities: Several activities are underway including using Facebook boosts to epand social media reach, the creation of an EAB cornhole game that includes a D shaped hole, ash leaf painting on the boards, and EAB beanbags, and a new face in hole popup display to engage participants at public events including the upcoming VT Flower Show. We have held outreach events at the Shelburne Farms Harvest Festival, the Wildlife Festival in Dover, VT, CCV Environmental Studies class, Marsh Billings Rockefeller Forest Festival, the Youth Environmental Summit, and New England ISA. Desired Future Condition 3: Forest Products and Ecosystem Services Maintain and enhance forest contribution to ecosystem services. Strategies H M L 3.1 Facilitate opportunities to market and utilize urban wood including after natural disasters or pest infestations. 3.2 Facilitate opportunities for integrating agroforestry and urban and community forestry including integration with local food production. 3.3 Promote awareness and use of urban and community forestry practices for water quality protection in new land development and retrofits including low impact development (LID) and green stormwater infrastructure (GSI).

4 3.4 Promote awareness and use of urban and community forestry practices to mitigate urban air temperatures and pollution. 3.5 Promote awareness and stewardship of recreation in town forests and other public places. 3.6 Eplore opportunities for forest carbon credits for urban and community forestry in Vermont. 3.7 Identify and promote climate mitigation and adaptation strategies for urban and community forests. Water Quality: Resilient Right of Way Grant: Progress continues on developing the educational resources for this grant and we are now moving into the net phase of identifying communities: o Urban Component: Work is progressing with our contractors, DuBois & King and Urban Rain Design, to develop the Green Streets Manual and training materials. You will be hearing more about this at the Council meeting and will have an opportunity to provide input. We have also begun the process to identify the 10 communities we'll be working with and what the assessment and planning process might look like. o Rural Component: To help support this effort, we will be hiring a 2 year limited service position at 70% time to coordinate the development of the outreach materials, community engagement, and plan development. Our pilot community will be Northfield. Green Infrastructure Collaborative, Council, and Roundtable: We continue to support these efforts, and have begun regular meetings with Green Infrastructure Coordinator at Sea Grant Energy Conservation Submitted a proposal to the Windham Regional Planning Commission's Energy Committee and High Meadow Seeds to support an Energy Saving Trees program for Windham County that would include strategically planting 400 trees, and outreach about the benefits of planting trees for energy conservation. A meeting in January will be held eplore other potential partners for this type of program across the state.

5 Desired Future Condition 4: Land Ethic Maintain and enhance an ethic of respect for the land, sustainable use and eemplary management. Strategies H M L 4.1 Epand opportunities for students to learn about and engage in urban and community forestry through educational programming, service learning, and internships. 4.2 Support awareness and understanding of the social, economic and environmental benefits provided by urban and community forests and active engagement in their stewardship. 4.3 Enhance relations with public media partners and efforts in social media. 4.4 Facilitate Arbor Day in Vermont. 4.5 Facilitate urban and community forest and forestry educational programming for educators, homeowners, municipalities, green industry professionals, and volunteers. 4.6 Facilitate Vermont s Big Tree program. 4.7 Train and support urban and community forestry leaders including town Tree Wardens and Tree Boards. 4.8 Train and support volunteer citizen scientists engaged in urban and community forestry. 4.9 Engage professionals in urban and community forestry including arborists, planners, landscape architects, and foresters Recognize urban and community forestry champions and model projects. Conduct technical assistance to communities in order to help them understand, evaluate, and/or implement actions to advance sustainable urban and community forestry programs. Arbor Day: Arbor Day Conference planning continues. Mark your calendars for Thursday, May 4th at Vermont College of Fine Arts in Montpelier.

6 Growing Works of Art Contest Theme Announced Tree with a Story. Poster created from last year s contest and this year s prompt were mailed to 265 schools. Past and Upcoming Educational Events: First Detector Training: Offered on September 21 in Springfield, and another training was offered on October 12 for a private tree care company, Chippers Inc., that sent 8 employees. SOUL: Net SOUL class will be in the spring in Waterbury. Backyard Woods: Delivered the Backyard Woods Online Program to 27 residents of Addison and Chittenden Counties this fall. Plans underway to deliver the program to Windsor/Windham area in February/March. Overall feedback is very positive. Forestry Education Programs Teens Reaching Youth (TRY) Forests and Trees: The curriculum has been developed and seven teams signed up to be trained to deliver the course. This will etend our outreach to over 250 youth in Vermont, including leadership development. Our VT Woods: Work continues the website. A survey was recently released to help us identify how to advertise partner assistance. We are also under contract with a marketing firm to help us refine the site architecture and content, and develop a marketing strategy. First Detectors: New mini guides/manuals were created to replace the large binders. These are a simple and efficient way to get the needed information. Response has been very positive. Media/Communications: Social Media: Continue to support our social media accounts. A week long social media campaign around our 25 th program anniversary will occur the week of 12/5 spearheaded by students in a UVM service learning class. Newsletters: Bimonthly TRE and biweekly VolunTRE continued. Website: A complete review of our website: was conducted and updates are in progress. Program Communication Piece: As part of our 25 year celebration, we are developing a communication piece that can be used as a template for the annual piece. We are now under contract with a marketing firm, Small Mammal, to help develop the piece. They will be at our meeting to further help us refine our goals and final product. Volunteer Support Tree Wardens: We are working with a policy class at Dartmouth to review the current tree warden statutes and to make recommendations for policy amendments. They epect to have recommendations ready to share at our Arbor Day conference. Students and Educators:

7 AmeriCorps: Bonnie is continuing to serve with the program and provide valuable technical and educational assistance. UVM Service Learning Class: We are working with 5 students at UVM to help us celebrate our 25 year program anniversary. The work includes conducting interviews with several communities to capture program impact, a week long social media campaign, an outreach piece to communicate the value of trees on UVM's campus, and a presentation to the Council. Financial Assistance to Communities: 2015 Grants: Grant monitoring, 2 more close out Grants: Awarded grants to 24 recipients. Developed cooperative agreements and are already closing out grants. To help our grant recipients celebrate 25 years of the program with us, we developed flags for them to hold and take pictures with Grants: Preparing for grant awards for Desired Future Condition 5: Legal, Institutional, and Economic Framework Vermont has a legal, institutional, and economic framework in place for forest conservation and sustainability. Strategies H M L 5.1 Epand funding opportunities to support local, state, and regional efforts for urban and community forest stewardship, health, and sustainability. 5.2 Educate state leadership of programming efforts, opportunities, and challenges. 5.3 Educate communities and citizens about urban and community forest policies, rules, and laws including Vermont s Tree Warden statutes. 5.4 Advocate for policies, programs, and initiatives that assist in urban and community forest stewardship, health, and sustainability. 5.5 Establish an appropriate level of infrastructure and staffing to meet changing needs. 5.6 Foster strategic partnerships to deliver innovative urban and community forestry programming.

8 Financial Partnerships UVM Etension: We will begin development of the net contract in January. There will be an organization change soon for Etension to move from in independent department to under the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. US Forest Service: Submitted final report for 2014 grant, and preparing for progress reports for all open grants. Planning: Supporting the development of the Forest Action Plan. Program Staffing: Maintaining weekly check ins and quarterly face to face planning meetings. Council: Supporting Council/Program efforts.

VTcommunityforestry.org

VTcommunityforestry.org For more than 25 years Vermont Urban & Community Forestry has worked at a grassroots level to plant, promote, and protect Vermont s urban trees and community forests. SO, WHAT ARE URBAN & COMMUNITY FORESTS?