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December 2022
NCUFC eNews
Protecting, Sustaining, Advocacy
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Greetings, All!
It's amazing that the year 2022 is coming to an end.
We have achieved so much this year, as we started returning to our pre-pandemic routines for education events. I have heard lots of great feedback about our learning events for the year, and next year will be even better.
The Board of Directors and staff at NCUFC are working hard to prepare Carolina Canopy Workshops, Community Tree Webinars and the annual conference for next year. During our planning efforts, we are building on what the Council does best -- keeping everyone who is connected to urban forests informed of the latest field developments while making sure their basic knowledge and skills stay fresh.
In particular, our workshops will focus on three themes:
- foundational skills in urban tree management
- soil management
- municipal ordinances
Our webinars will occur on the third Tuesday every month (yes, 12 webinars in 2023!). We will alternate webinar themes monthly, switching back and forth between advocacy and technical oriented topics. We want these webinars to help members of the North Carolina Tree Advocacy Network, and other tree protection groups, generate new ideas for tackling their urban forest efforts across the state. We also want the webinars to be available to more tree care workers. Thus, the webinars will occur in the late afternoon.
This month also marks my last month to serve as your Board Chair. It has been an honor to work alongside so many people eager to move the field of arboriculture forward. I hear from others how exceptional the NC Urban Forest Council is, which makes me proud to be part of such a unique team. We will be in great hands next year, however, as Elizabeth Riley at Alamance Community College assumes the Board Chair position. She has so many wonderful ideas and a lot of energy.
So stay safe and warm this holiday season and may it be a joyous one for you and your family. I look forward to seeing all of you at NCUFC events in 2023!
Jeff Kish
Board Chair, NC Urban Forest Council
Bartlett Tree Experts, Raleigh
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North Carolina Urban Forest Council
P.O. Box 37416
Raleigh, NC 27627
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Original news articles by Kathryn B. Reis
Public domain images from pxhere.com and Shutterstock.com
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Council Affairs
Community Tree Webinars: Registration opening soon
24 January 2023 topic: Advocacy at the local and national levels; review of federal funding opportunities
- Presenters are incoming Chair Rachel Holmes and Board Member Danielle Watson of the Sustainable Urban Forest Coalition
- 3:00 to 4:00 p.m.
21 February topic: Tree root protection and urban soils
- Presenter Kelby Fite, Vice President and Director of Bartlett Tree Research Laboratories
- 3:00 to 4:00 p.m.
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Partners
Webinar: Carbon Offset Opportunities to Plant and Protect Urban Forests
USDA Urban Forest Service Technology & Science Delivery Team
webinar
14 December 2022, 1:00 to 2:15 p.m. eastern
- Click below to also access past webinar recordings
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Green & Growin' 23: Sow the Seeds of Success
Sheraton Greensboro at Four Seasons & Greensboro Coliseum
16-20 January 2023
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Protecting Trees from winter elements
by Kyle Coverdale, City of Asheboro Municipal Arborist
Happy holidays to one and all.
I hope your upcoming celebrations are fun and enjoyable. I was originally going to write this article on winter watering, as we had been dry for some time in my area. Since we have had plenty of rain in the last week, I decided to go down a little different path.
Winter is upon us. Snow and ice storms are coming. Let’s make sure we are prepared. Trees that have snow and/or ice on them support extra weight, which makes them more dangerous. They can break and fall or hang low enough to impact our cars while driving. If possible, try to avoid parking under heavy branches and ice loaded trees.
Protecting smaller trees from the cold, snow and ice is especially important. You can wrap the trunk, from soil level to the first branch, to help avoid frost cracks and winter sunscald. Extra mulch can be applied to protect new roots from freezing. Just remember to avoid “volcano” mulching. To escape snow and ice damage, lightly brush snow off small trees to prevent breakage yet let ice melt off naturally. Remember that potted trees can be brought indoors to avoid all of the harsh elements of winter.
Inspect your trees regularly, especially after storms. Look for broken, hanging branches and for splits in branches. If you find any of these features, the tree will need special attention to avoid further damage.
I hope none of us have broken branches or possibly lose a tree this winter. Again, have a great holiday season.
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Urban Forest 101 for School Kids
The University of British of Columbia and Vancouver School Board teamed up to create a set of three lesson plans focused on urban forestry.
- Describe urban forests and explore their ecosystem services
- Inventory neighborhood trees (hands-on learning)
- Map your neighborhood's habitats (introduction to landscape planning)
The lesson even showcases a short Forest Break video that the North Carolina Forest Service created with ForestInfo.org to define an urban forest.
These lessons are part of a larger education platform called Citizen's Coolkit on Climate Change and Urban Forestry. Coolkit participants will learn all the ways municipal parks, backyards and other green spaces serve the community at large. The creators also hope participants will become more engaged in landscape planning efforts that seek to protect green spaces ... including urban forests!
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Arborist Exchange Program
City Trees Magazine, November/December 2022 issue
publication of the Society of Municipal Arborists
Ever feel like you can't see the urban forest for the trees? Get the wide angle view through the eyes of your colleagues!
The Arborist Exchange Program offers municipal arborists, utility arborists, and tree non-profit managers around the world the opportunity to engage with colleagues and experience urban forestry challenges and successes in varying political and cultural settings.
Participants will spend one week together in each other's community learning about their jobs and how challenges are met under differing circumstances with differing goals. Actual dates will be chosen by the participants. Exchanges include social time as well as working time. Partners are encouraged to host each other, but one-way exchanges are also considered. Local exchanges may be less than one week.
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As climate change progresses, trees in cities struggle
by Manuel Valdes, reporter in Seattle, Washington
Life in a city can be especially hard for a tree, and those challenges are escalating with global warming.
"If trends hold, we are going to have a lot of trees die," said Nicholas Johnson, an arborist for Seattle City Parks. "Under heat, trees get weak—just like people."
Heat and drought force trees to spend energy surviving that would otherwise go to regeneration, growth or fighting off disease and pests, Johnson said. "Everything outside is trying to eat a tree. The stresses become compounded."
Human-caused climate change also fuels more extreme weather such as intense wind, rain and freezing temperatures.
"It's not the gradual change that's going to be the problem, it's these extreme swings of too much water, too little water, too much wind, and storm intensities are going to cause these rapid changes," said David Nowak, a retired scientist for the U.S. Forest Service.
Cities are familiar with large scale tree loss, but usually one kind of tree is affected, such as birches killed by a borer pest. With climate change, researchers are concerned canopy loss will outpace the rate of newly planted trees reaching maturity, which takes 10 to 20 years.
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Researchers study how urban trees affect environment
by Frederick Melo, reporter in St. Paul, Minnesota
Everyone knows that trees provide shade. What may be less obvious are their contributions to evaporative cooling. Think of tree roots drawing water from the ground and pumping it to their leaves, which effectively sweat H2O, cooling the air around them in the process.
How far does that cooling go in an urban environment that seems to be getting hotter?
And how do trees impact storm water? As rainfall moves through their branches, does it change chemical composition? Rainwater effectively feeds trees, but do trees also feed rainwater?
Those are the kinds of questions fueling a series of science experiments in four St. Paul parks. A team of interdisciplinary researchers from the University of Minnesota has outfitted 30 trees in parks across the city with a variety of sensors, rainwater and temperature gauges in a multi-faceted effort to better understand "transpiration," or tree water loss, and to test rainfall filtered through the tree canopy for nitrogen, phosphorous, carbon and ions.
"We want to know what trees do to rainwater both ways—between the sky and the ground, and between the ground and the sky," Diana Karwan [associate professor of forest resources] said. "As scientists, we're learning how to modify our studies because people are all around us and interacting with this. If we were in the middle of the woods, the set-up would look different. There would be wires all over the place."
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Enhancements coming to the 2023 Urban & Community Forestry Financial Assistance Program
by North Carolina Forest Service
The new year is quickly approaching, and the N.C. Forest Service (NCFS) is excited to announce the 2023 Urban and Community Forestry Financial Assistance Program will soon open. The program has been completely redesigned to streamline the application and award process. Here are some highlights:
1) A short and simple online application and award process.
2) Application and awards are for the completion of a single urban and community forestry practice or activity in one of the categories below:
- Tree Inventories and Canopy Cover Assessments
- Urban and Community Forestry Plan Development
- Ordinance and Policy Development
- Professional Staff Development
- Education and Outreach
3) Cost Share Model - NCFS will reimburse the awardee for 50% of the project cost (purchased services and products).
4) Match Structure agreement option and additional financial assistance is available for Disadvantaged Communities.
5) A contract with an urban forestry consulting firm is in place to provide awardees sample tree inventories and canopy cover assessments (A partnership with the N.C. Urban Forest Council).
Local, tribal, and state government entities, nonprofits, and other tax-exempt organizations are eligible to apply. Visit NCFS website in mid-January for more details and specific Request for Applications opening dates.
Funding is provided by the USDA Forest Service Urban and Community Forestry Program through the Cooperative Forestry Assistance Act.
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Join or Renew Your Membership
Today!
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NC Urban Forest Council
(252) 653-6277
www.ncufc.org
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