Photo courtesy Ansel Oommen, Bugwood.org

COMMENTS

FROM THE CHAIR

Hello NCUFC members,

What a busy time of the year! I would like to take a moment and wish everyone a safe and productive growing season.

April is Arbor Month. Please, please, please help us in celebrating by sending us photos! We love to see how you are celebrating and enjoying tree planting events. A few events coming this month and in May. On April 20^th we have the NC Community Tree Webinar: Tree Preservation Ordinances for NC Municipalities and on May 18^th our Webinar: Examples of How Trees are used in Storm Water Control Measures. More information and registration details on our website @ www.ncufc.org . This Saturday in Greensboro we will be handing out trees resulting from the Bradford Pear Bounty program. This program is a collaboration between NC State Extension, NC Urban Forest Council, NC Forest Service and NC Wildlife Federation. Hats off to those who worked on this program, it's turned out to be a hugely popular event. So popular that we will be hosting another program in a different municipality in the fall and even more in 2023. Stay tuned for more info. Lastly I want to give a big shout out to Elizabeth Riley and her team at Alamance Community College for holding the first Arboriculture Certificate Program. She spearheaded this program and finished her first class of students that 100% focused on Arboriculture. It was a 16 week program and when completed her students received a certificate in Arboriculture. 

Thank you all and enjoy the spring season.

Jeff Kish

Board Chair, NC Urban Forest Council

Bartlett Tree Experts, Raleigh 

North Carolina Urban Forest Council

P.O. Box 37415

Raleigh, NC 27627

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COUNCIL EVENTS

Carolina Canopy Workshop: Managing an Urban Landscape

Fayetteville, NC

April 13

NC Community Tree Webinar: Tree Preservation Ordinances for North Carolina Municipalities

Online webinar

April 20

NC Community Tree Webinar: Examples of How Trees are used in Storm Water Control Measures

Online webinar

May 18

PARTNER EVENTS

Greenspace Preservation in Distressed Communities

Online webinar

April 13

COUNCIL MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

Keith O'Herrin, Union County, NC

Keith is the Urban Forester for Union County, NC, and he has worked in municipal forestry for over 10 years. In his current position, he reviews construction and development for the county and 10 towns within the county. This also includes consulting with home owners associations when a developer plants trees poorly. The other 50% of his position involves NC State Extension, so he focuses on school enrichment to introduce youth to nature as a career path. He is building up the arboriculture and urban forestry career pipeline in the county. “I am also a researcher focusing on both tree preservation during construction, as well as improving the urban forestry profession” (see Urban Forestry 2020), he said.

Keith believes our urban canopy is still overlooked and taken for granted, despite its critical importance. He went on to say, “Municipal Forestry is first and foremost a customer service job, the customer being people, not trees. Also, we aren't here to prevent development, but rather to achieve the highest quality development possible which must include the urban canopy,” said Keith. 

O’Herrin is a relatively new NCUFC member having joined the organization about six months ago. “North Carolina is the sixth state I've lived and worked in. I can already tell this is the most active state urban forest council I've seen.” 

Keith says his favorite tree is the Swamp White Oak. “The root system of Swamp White Oaks dives straight down, so they were very tolerant of construction in my last job in the Chicago suburbs,” he said.

COUNCIL NEWS

Celebrating 150 Years of Arbor Day

April 29 marks the 150 anniversary of Arbor Day in the United States. It's known as the tree-planters holiday and it has had a tremendous impact on the environmental health of the nation. Because of this annual occasion, millions of tree have been planted across the United States. Arbor Day is celebrated on the last Friday in April each year.

Did you know the first Arbor Day celebration took place in Nebraska?

Click here to learn more about the history of Arbor Day.

In North Carolina, a number of Arbor Day events are taking place this year.

Click here to see a list of events.

NCUFC and other members of the North Carolina Community Tree Advocacy network issued a press release to celebrate Arbor Day. Click here to read the release.

Many states have their own Arbor Days. In North Carolina, Arbor Day is celebrated on the first Friday after March 15. This year marked the 55th anniversary of Arbor Day in North Carolina. Click here for the Arbor Day page of the NC Forest Service.

Wanted: Bradford Pear Trees

Name something that is weak, smells badly in the spring, and is bad for birds. If you said Bradford Pear Trees, you are right.

The problem with these trees is that they breed with other pear trees and spread in natural forests, pushing out native trees and creating “food deserts” for birds. They are also structurally weak and their white blossoms in the spring really stink. For years, they’ve been sold commercially as ornamental trees.

That’s why the NCUFC is teaming up with partners to reduce the number of Bradford Pears in North Carolina through the NC Bradford Pear Bounty. The initiative, announced last month, encourages homeowners to cut down a Bradford Pear and take a picture of the downed tree. Residents can then register ahead of time to pick up a free native tree on April 23 in Greensboro. 

The program proved to be wildly popular, so much so that registration for the program had to be paused shortly after it was announced as demand for new trees quickly surpassed the supply. Partners hope to hold similar tree bounties in other parts of the state. The fact that so many people want to get rid of the invasive Bradford Pears is a good sign.

The NC Bradford Pear Bounty is a collaborative effort between NCUFC, NC Forest Service, NC State Extension, and NC Wildlife Federation. 

More information about this event is found at treebountync.com.

Click here to learn more.

May 27 Deadline for Legacy Tree Fund Grant Proposals

Community groups, local governments, schools and others have until May 27 to apply for a grant through NCUFC's Legacy Tree Fund.

The program provides funding for tree-planting projects that conserve energy, improve air quality, and provide many other benefits. Priority is given to recovery tree-planting projects in communities impacted by storms, those with an environmental justice focus or that have a significant volunteer/educational component.

Organizations have until 5 pm on May 27 to apply for a Legacy Tree Fund grant. The maximum grant request for each project is $5,000. Approved projects will start Sept. 1, 2022, and must be completed by May 31, 2023. Tree-planting events will generally occur during the fall of each year but can be adjusted to meet an area’s planting season.

Click here for the 2022 Legacy Tree Fund Grant RFP and application.

Click here for the Legacy Tree Fund webpage.

Mulch the Right Way

Spring is a great time to mulch around your trees and shrubs. But knowing how to properly apply mulch is important because spreading mulch the wrong way can actually hurt trees and plants.

Mulches provide many benefits for trees and shrubs: moderate soil temperatures, reduce soil moisture loss, reduce soil compaction, provide nutrients, improve soil structure, keep mowers and string trimmers away from the trunk. These benefits result in more root growth and healthier plants. When applying mulch, the following guidelines should be observed:

• The best mulch materials are wood chips, bark nuggets, composted leaves, or pine needles. Plastic, stone, sawdust, finely shredded bark, and grass clippings should be avoided. Do not use redwood or walnut mulch due to allelopathic effects.
• Mulch should be applied from the dripline to the trunk (Figure 1). If this is not practical, minimum mulch circle radii should be 3 feet for small trees, 8 feet for medium trees, and 12 feet for large trees.

Click here to read the full story.

REGIONAL STORY

Emerald ash borer damage

(photo courtesy Ryan Armbrust, Kansas Forest Service, Bugwood.org)

Scientists estimate invasive insects will kill

1.4 million US street trees by 2050

A new study estimates that over the next 30 years, 1.4 million street trees will be killed by invasive insects, costing over 900 million dollars to replace. The findings are published in the British Ecological Society’s Journal of Applied Ecology.

Researchers from McGill University, the USDA Forest Service Southern Research Station and North Carolina State University have made the first nationwide spatial forecast of street tree mortality from invasive insects, using data from roughly 30,000 urban areas across the United States. 90% of the 1.4 million trees deaths forecasted in the study are predicted to be caused by the emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis), which is expected to kill virtually all ash trees in more than 6000 urban areas.

The researchers predict that the impact of invasive insects will not be evenly spread across the country, with less than a quarter of US communities set to experience 95% of all street tree mortality resulting from invasive insects.

Link to the full story

NATIONAL STORY

Photo courtesy Planet Detroit

Camden, Newark & Baltimore Lead in Building Equitable Access to Urban Tree Canopy

Sheila Roberts recalls walking through Cooper Plaza, the Camden, N.J. neighborhood she calls home in 2002, noticing something unusual: a newly planted, tree-lined street.

“Immediately upon looking at the street, I didn’t notice the trash. I didn’t notice the graffiti. And I didn’t notice how unkempt the street was,” Roberts says. “And it was because there were trees there.”

Roberts learned that the new planting was the work of the New Jersey Tree Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to planting trees in the state’s urban neighborhoods. She’s since worked with the foundation to get over 200 trees planted in Cooper Plaza, and she says the resulting positive effects on the community’s health and quality of life have been enormous.

Link to the full story

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