By Dan Buckler, DNR Urban Forest Assessment Specialist; daniel.buckler@wisconsin.gov or (608) 445-4578
Every year, the summer ends faster than one could pronounce Liquidambar styraciflua, and this year was no exception. Hopefully, while you are trying to recall proper Latin pronunciations, your summer is still filled with enjoyable, productive or illuminating activities. That was certainly the case for the DNR Urban Forestry summer internship program. This summer, staff worked with Southern University students Taylor Colman and Priscilla Loh on a variety of different data collection projects, filling the internship’s eight weeks with species identification, tree mensuration and tree health assessments.
Taylor Colman and Priscilla Loh take a break while surveying trees on Milwaukee’s north side.
Within those short two months, Taylor and Priscilla continued a project assessing the Ohio DNR’s Urban Site Index methodology to see if it could be applied to Wisconsin communities, ground-truthed plots in a LiDAR study by the State Cartographers Office and curated inventory data for the Wisconsin Community Tree Map.
They also helped design and implement an i-Tree Eco project that assessed ground cover and trees on Milwaukee Public Schools properties, the subject a future newsletter article.
Beyond assessment projects, Taylor and Priscilla were also exposed to a wide range of other experiences to broaden their knowledge of the Forestry and Urban Forestry communities. Among other things, they learned proper pruning techniques from DNR Urban Forestry staff, educated Milwaukee area youth at a nature therapy farm, visited the Forest Service’s Forest Products Lab in Madison, learned about nursery production at both the City of Milwaukee and the DNR nurseries, watched aerial rescue and other arborist skills performed with the City of Milwaukee’s apprenticeship program, and learned about forest health pressures and urban wood opportunities from DNR Forestry staff.
Taylor Colman and Priscilla Loh are visited by Wisconsin’s most loathed insect, the emerald ash borer (seen on Taylor’s outstretched arm).
We want to extend a special thanks to those partners who graciously contributed their time to provide learning experiences for our interns. In particular, thank you to the City of Milwaukee Forestry Services, the U.S. Forest Service, Creating Pathways Farm and Kettle Moraine Hardwoods.
Look for additional articles about some of the projects Taylor and Priscilla worked on this summer. Best of luck to them as they return to school!