TREE Press January 2022

January 2022

"People should know that trees are generating organisms,

instead of re-generating organisms like human beings.

Trees generate their own food from carbon dioxide, sunlight and water,

while human beings must intake food from elsewhere."

--Alex Shigo, PhD

I Wanna Iowa!

Join the TREE Fund at the 2022 Tour des Trees taking place from Sept. 3 through Sept. 10.

Registration is now open!

Ride 440 miles through the western part of Iowa and spread the love of all things trees. The 2022 route will take riders on a 6-day journey through Des Moines, Pella, Ames, and Creston, Iowa, and finish up with a loop at the Arbor Day Farm in Nebraska City, Nebraska.

The Tour des Trees is the primary fundraiser for the TREE Fund and we are thankful to all of our riders and their supporters. We are excited about the possibilities that this year's tour will offer and we hope to see you in Iowa!

For more information, see our website or, to make a donation, visit here.

Transition on the TREE Fund Board of Trustees

At its December 2021 meeting, the TREE Fund Board of Trustees expressed with deep gratitude the years of exemplary, selfless service of trustees who completed their terms on the board: Ray Henning, George Hudler, and Randy Miller.

Ray served as the TREE Fund treasurer and chair of the Audit and Finance Committee, George was chair of the Research and Education Committee, and Randy was chair of the ISA Liaison Committee.

The board elected the 2022 slate of officers:

Steve Geist, of SavATree, chair;
Beau Brodbeck, of Alabama Cooperative Extension System at Auburn University, chair elect;
Patrick Franklin, of Bartlett Tree Experts, vice chair; and
Jacques Brunswick, of the Children’s Museum of Manhattan, treasurer.

Jacques is the new chair of the Audit and Finance Committee, and Dan Herms, PhD, of The Davey Tree Expert Company, is the new chair of the Research and Education Committee.

The board elected and welcomed to the board Lori Brockelbank, David Gorden, FASLA, and Kathleen Wolf, PhD.

Lori Brockelbank is an Area manager with Davey Resource Group’s Natural Resource Consulting team. Lori has experience in both traditional forestry and urban forestry. She specializes in tree inventories, urban forest management and master plan writing, and contract processes (writing, bidding, and administration).

Lori also focuses on private and community land activities that include insect and disease diagnosis, tree planting plans and inspections, and working with municipalities to obtain Tree City USA status. She has taught an introduction to urban forestry course at Jamestown Community College and has instructed at numerous master gardener programs.

As a business developer in her home state of New York, Lori provides community and urban forestry solutions focusing on outreach, planting, and risk management.

Lori is:

an International Society of Arboriculture-Certified Arborist and Municipal Specialist (NY-5326AM);
president of the New York State Arborist Association;
a board member of the New York State Urban Forestry Council;
a graduate of the Municipal Forestry Institute (MFI); and
a graduate of SUNY-ESF (College of Environmental Science and Forestry), where she holds a bachelor’s degree in natural resource management.

Lori has participated in five Tours des Trees.

David Gorden, FASLA, is a landscape architect with Mark M. Holeman, Inc. in Indianapolis where he has been creating and overseeing the care of landscapes for over 30 years.

A graduate of the University of Illinois, he has been involved in a variety of professional, environmental, and community organizations. Leadership positions have included serving as:

president of the Indiana Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA);
a member of ASLA’s Board of Trustees;
president of the Indianapolis Museum of Art’s Horticultural Society; and
member and chair of the Indiana Board of Registration for Architects and Landscape Architects.

He has been particularly active in issues relating to invasive plants and currently serves on the Indiana Invasive Plant Advisory Committee and board of the Midwest Invasive Plant Network (MIPN). In 2018 he was named a Fellow of ASLA.

David is an enthusiastic and curious traveler, having visited more than 75 countries. This includes frequent humanitarian work trips which have taken him to Cuba, Bolivia, Jamaica, Guatemala, El Salvador, and South Africa.

An avid cyclist, he is a three-time participant in the Tour des Trees.

Kathleen Wolf, PhD, is a research social scientist at the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, University of Washington. After earning her Ph.D. at the University of Michigan, she developed a research program to investigate human response to outdoor spaces in cities, based on theory and methods of environmental psychology. Kathy's mission is to discover,

understand and communicate human behavior and benefits, as people experience nature in cities and towns.

Kathy was a research associate with the US Forest Service Pacific NW Research

Station from 2010-2018 collaborating on studies of social dimensions of urban forestry and ecosystems. She has presented her research throughout the United States, in Australia, Russia, Canada, Europe, Japan, Hong Kong, Chile, the Dominican Republic and Mexico. She has also worked professionally as a landscape architect and as an environmental planner. You can view Dr. Wolf's research program here and the Green Cities: Good Health project here.

Kathy is interested in how scientific information can be integrated into local

government policy and planning. She continues to serve with regional and national organizations that promote nature-based health and quality of life in communities, such as the Washington State Community Forestry Council, American Forests, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Sustainable Sites Initiative, the American Planning Association, the TKF Foundation, and

Transportation Research Board national committee on Landscape and Environment.

Kathy has received (much appreciated!) support from TREE Fund for two projects: 1) evaluation of shopper response to tree canopy in retail business districts, and 2) city trees and human health response, including economic value.

Kathy was also a member of the 2020 TREE Fund Strategic Planning Task Force that created the current three-year plan.

New grant awards

At its December 2021 meeting, the TREE Fund Board of Trustees approved the following grants, as recommended by the Research and Education Committee.

John Z. Duling Grant

Jose Delpiano, University of the Andes, Santiago, Chile, for his project “Computer Vision for Hazard Tree Identification and Assessment” for $25,000.

Jack Kimmel International Grant

Justin Morgenroth, University of Canterbury, for his proposal: “Optimizing tree responses to root pruning in mature trees” for $10,000.

Bob Skiera Memorial Fund Building Bridges Initiative Grant

Lindsay Darling, Morton Arboretum, for her project “Identifying social barriers to equitable tree planting and quantifying potential benefits to overcoming them” for $29,236.

Tree and Soil Research Fund Grant

Rebecca Brianne Abney, University of Georgia Research Foundation, Inc., for her project “Utilizing biochar to improve community tree vault soils and tree health and to reduce watershed contamination” for $9,652.

New grant and scholarship application

window is now open

Hyland R. Johns Grant

Supports research that directly affects the work of industry professionals.

Award amount: up to $25,000 (minimum $10,000)

100-Word Letters of Inquiry (LOIs) accepted Jan. 15 to March 1, 2022

For approved LOIs only, applications accepted Jan. 15 to March 15, 2022

Utility Arborist Research Fund Grant

Supports work with real importance and benefit to utility tree care professionals.

Award amount: up to $50,000 (minimum $10,000)

100-Word Letters of Inquiry (LOIs) accepted Jan. 15 to March 1, 2022

For approved LOIs only, applications accepted Jan. 15 to March 15, 2022

Safe Arborist Techniques Fund Grant

Supports original research that creates a safer work environment for people working in the tree care industry and the general public they serve.

Award amount: up to $15,000 (minimum $5,000)

100-Word Letters of Inquiry (LOIs) accepted Jan. 15 to March 1, 2022

For approved LOIs only, applications accepted Jan. 15 to March 15, 2022

Barborinas Family Fund Grant

Supports projects focused on tree production, planting techniques, and the improvement of tree varieties for urban conditions, to focus on investigations into root science.

Award amount: up to $10,000 (minimum $5,000)

100-Word Letters of Inquiry (LOIs) accepted Jan. 15 to March 1, 2022

For approved LOIs only, applications accepted Jan. 15 to March 15, 2022

Ohio Chapter ISA Education Grant

Funded by Ohio Chapter ISA to provide arboricultural education programs or projects within the State of Ohio which serve a target population of 16 years of age or older.

Award amount: $5,000