The American Transmission Company (ATC) is accepting applications until September 30, 2019 for its Community Planting Program and Pollinator Habitat Program. Awards for both programs range from $100 to $5,000. Recipients will be selected and notified by the end of the year.
Continue reading “American Transmission Company now accepting grant applications”
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and UW-Madison Division of Extension (UWEX) are partnering to better understand the informational resources available to professionals who provide tree care advice and services to urban residents in Wisconsin. Using information collected from an exploratory survey in early 2019, DNR and UWEX staff plan to improve access to these resources and address additional needs by creating new resources. Next steps include identifying a place where existing and new materials can be easily accessed by all audiences.
When asked to report the most commonly discussed topics with homeowners, pests and diseases emerged as the top issue (36% of respondents) with tree planting/care/selection or tree pruning as other popular topics (20-23% of respondents respectively). While 75% of respondents say that they use verbal advice to share information with residents always or most of the time, they also identified a diverse range of topics and types of content that they would find useful when communicating with their audiences. Click this link to view the wide range of suggestions offered by survey respondents.
Once again, the Village of Gays Mills will be providing excellent community forestry training for surrounding partners and cooperators. Workshop attendees will learn basic information to manage and care for their trees throughout their lifespan. Use the brochure found here to register. For any questions, please contact Cindy Kohles, Gays Mills Village Forester, at (608) 872-2184.
Green Bay Packers and DNR staff plant a ceremonial Sterling Linden tree in Titletown to help offset the Green Bay Packer’s carbon footprint produced by traveling to away games. Trees naturally sequester carbon dioxide, providing a long-term solution to the problem because trees sequester more and more carbon as they grow larger. This marks the 9th year of the Packer’s First Downs for Trees (FDFT) Program which has planted 5,144 trees to date throughout Brown County.
DNR Secretary Cole, DNR staff and former Packers Johnnie Gray and Gerry Ellis planting a tree.
How does a community manage to increase its street and park tree species diversity by 445% without spending ANY public funds to purchase trees?!! Look no further than the Village of Cambridge, WI (pop. 1,500) for an answer.
Continue reading “Cambridge Tree Project”
WAA Summer Conference
Join the WAA (Wisconsin Arborist Association) for their summer conference and picnic at the Green Lake Conference Center in Green Lake on Tuesday, July 16th. The program committee has put together another excellent lineup for this event. They are offering two educational tracks, one indoors and one outdoors- a little something for everyone.
Topics include:
For more information or to register, visit the WAA website at http://www.waa-isa.org/events-programs/summer-conference/.
Invasive plants have been shown to impact Wisconsin’s economy, environment and human health. Roadsides are a key area where these unwanted plants establish and spread. These right of way habitats are challenging to work in but focused efforts can be successful in preventing spread and reduce invasive plant populations.
To help educate and jumpstart management, The University of Wisconsin-Madison Extension along with 4-Control are conducting roadside invasive plant workshops throughout the state. We invite you to attend one of these five regional workshops. While this training is available to anyone interested, the focus will be on training staff of municipalities that manage vegetation on roadsides. Continue reading “Invasive plant management on roadsides workshops”
Whether it be a hike through the woods, time spent with your family at a local park or sitting beneath the shade of that stately red oak in your backyard, we, as urban forestry professionals and enthusiasts, experience and recognize the physical, mental and spiritual benefits of spending time outdoors in nature.
For decades, scientists have been researching and documenting the health benefits that trees and nature provide, and as urban populations continue to rise, the impact of nearby nature on human health has generated a lot of interest in our world of urban and community forestry.
To further that conversation in Wisconsin, the first ever ‘Good Health Grows on Trees: The Influence of Nearby Nature on Public Health’ conference was hosted by the DNR Urban Forestry program at the Rotary Botanical Gardens in Janesville on May 30th. Continue reading “Inaugural ‘Good Health Grows on Trees’ conference a success!”
There is a small sign in the Milwaukee DNR office that instructs the reader to “Learn of a pine tree from a pine tree.” In other words, to better understand something, one has to see it, feel it, smell it, rather than just reading about it. In urban forestry, this manifests itself in tree inventories, or surveys of individual trees in a given area. Municipalities have recognized the importance of these tree inventories for years, and now, led by a few pioneering teachers, so have some schools. Continue reading “Soliciting teachers and students for school tree inventories”
Routinely, DNR North Central Urban Forestry Coordinator Don Kissinger puts a call out to his networking group regarding chainsaw safety training. This past winter he hit the jackpot and received a great response and a first ever request for an Advanced Training. Thus, two courses occurred this past April (Basic & Advanced). Continue reading “Spring 2019 chainsaw safety training”
