The Urban Forest Improvement Program, funded by the Inflation Reduction Act and the USDA Forest Service’s Urban and Community Forestry Program, provides grants to help organizations benchmark their urban or community forests against the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) Urban and Community Forest Sustainability Standard.
These grants support the assessment of current management practices, offering valuable insights into how sustainably these forests are managed and a roadmap of opportunities for improvement. Continue reading “Sustainable Forestry Initiative Urban Forest Improvement Grant Application Now Open”
Tree City USA Interactive Map
The trees on school properties mirror those of the surrounding urban forest in composition but not in coverage.
The Wisconsin Climate and Health Collaborative, a group of climate and health professionals from across the state working to create a healthier climate, people and communities through local action, wants to learn from you and your community! Take this short 
Thirty years of data was reviewed by a group of horticultural, botanical and climatological experts for the latest USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map revision. This was determined to be the best balance between the fluctuations of year-to-year weather variation and the concept that, during their lifetimes, perennial plants mostly experience what is termed “weather” rather than “climate.” A complex algorithm was used for this edition of the Plant Hardiness Zone Map to enable more accurate interpolation between weather reporting stations. This method accounts for factors such as elevation change and proximity to bodies of water, making mapping zones more accurate. 
Autumn is a great time to plant trees. After the trees go in the ground, please take a few minutes to document the effort in the