Southern Urban and Interface Forests - What's New

Check out our new Kids in the Woods blog for updates on our project with Westwood Middle School, the University of Florida, Gainesville Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Affairs, and Alachua County Environmental Protection Department. We will also be providing information about other actvities related to children and nature.

http://kidsinwoods-interfacesouth.org/

The quarterly NOVA urban forestry roundtable heard presentations from Lauren Ohl-Trlica (Arlington County EM), George Roarty (Virginia Department of Emergency Management), and Dudley Hartel (Urban Foretstry South).

The links below are for the Urban Forestry South presentation and handouts:

Role of Professional Arborists in Disaster Preparedness and Recovery

Disaster Resources for Urban Foresters

Urban Tree Risk Resources

Or visit TreesVirginia for all of the presentations.

At the Great Plains Conference in Lincoln, the Nebraska Arborists Association heard from several speakers on the topics of tree risk.  The links that follow are presentations by Urban Forestry South (Dudley Hartel) on the role of professional arborists in disaster preparedness and response:

Planning for Disaster - Arborists Professional Role

Disaster Response – UFST and Municipal Arborists

Handouts included:

Disaster Resources for Urban Foresters

Urban Tree Risk Resources

In this issue of Leaves of Change you will learn about a recent study in Georgia that addressed two key questions: Will the physical effects of climate change be more apparent in some areas? Will certain populations and communities be affected more than others? You will also learn about the Centers’ recent training and outreach activities, recommended resources, and upcoming events related to urban and interface forestry.

"Bonnie Appleton was an inspiring person to her students and to the industries that she worked with.  Her research bridged many fields from horticulture and arboriculture to nursery and landscape management, landscape design and utility arboriculture.  Bonnie was a frequent speaker at chapter and national ISA events and was also involved in the development of the ISA certification program.  Her passing has been felt in the green industry across the US and internationally, we miss her passion and advocacy for horticulture and arboriculture education and research.

"To honor Bonnie, the legacy of her research, and her mentoring of many students; the Bonnie Appleton Memorial Fund was recently established at the TREE Fund.  The fund will be used to sponsor scholarships to help support undergraduate students continuing in her footsteps to benefit the green industry." B. White, VDOF

Click HERE to donate directly at TREE FUND

By Erin Jester
Gainesville Sun

More Gainesville students are walking in the woods this year, thanks in part to a nearly $14,000 grant from the U.S. Forest Service.

Westwood Middle School sixth-graders are spending this school year collecting data on wildlife and the environment in Loblolly Woods alongside scientists and teachers.

“There are a lot of benefits,” said Annie Hermansen-Baez, a scientist with the U.S. Forest Service. Students get out of the classroom and experience the woods that are right in their own backyard.

The entire sixth-grade class at Westwood is working in Loblolly Woods, which adjoins the school.

The project is funded through the U.S. Forest Service's More Kids in the Woods initiative, and was the project funded in Florida this year.

More Kids in the Woods seeks to connect children with the outdoors. This year, the Forest Service selected about 30 projects with that goal for funding.

Also lending a hand to the project are Gainesville Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs; the Alachua County Environmental Protection Department; the University of Florida's School of Forest Resources and Conservation; and Camp Crystal Lake, which will organize a school camp-out and nighttime nature walk in the spring.

To view the full article visit: http://leavesofchangeweekly.org/2013/10/31/loblolly-woods-helps-teach-young-scientists/

The current issue of Stormwater discusses Portland (OR) green infrastructure projects and the three components for success:

• engaged, (GI) supportive local government
• development community that recognizes the benefits
• design community that can implement green projects

The Downspout Disconnect and Green Streets programs are at the heart of their CSO (combined sewer overflow) solution.

See other LID resources at Stormwater (magazine).

Photo Credit: Nevue Ngan

Years ago, John Warner, an urban district forester with the Texas A&M Forest Service and a longtime InterfaceSouth partner, recognized that landownership patterns in the southeastern part of the state around Houston were changing rapidly. Latino, Chinese, and Vietnamese families from Houston were moving to the interface and buying 5–20 acre tracts of forestland within his rapidly growing multi-county district. He realized that the agency was going to have to change its communication approach to reach many of these new forest landowners. “As an agency, we know how to communicate with traditional landowners,” says Warner. “However, outreach to different ethnic groups is something new for us.”

In 2007, an opportunity to reach these new landowners presented itself when Warner met Tamberly Conway, a graduate student in the College of Forestry and Agriculture at Stephen F. Austin State University. Conway was working with Latino Legacy, a program established by the university and funded by the USDA Forest Service’s [USFS] More Kids in the Woods program to connect Latino communities with the public lands and forestlands in the Houston area through bilingual conservation education programming. (Conway has since been hired by the USFS as a conservation education specialist working remotely in Texas for the USFS’s office in Washington, D.C.)

InterfaceSouth and local partners, including the University of Florida’s School of Forest Resources and Conservation, the Gainesville Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Affairs, and Alachua County Environmental Protection, received funding from this year’s Forest Service More Kids in the Woods (MKIW) cost share funding opportunity to engage middle school students in outdoor science learning activities in Gainesville’s Hogtown Creek Watershed. The MKIW program supports activities and programs designed to spark curiosity about nature and promote learning through applications of science, technology, engineering and mathematics principles.

Project partners will collaborate with Westwood science teachers to conduct outdoor science learning activities and service learning projects within the nearby watershed. Partners will also organize a school camp out and participate in career day events and science fairs. Science middle school teachers will be provided professional development opportunities through a train-the-teacher workshop. Project successes, materials and information will be shared locally, regionally and nationally through our combined partner networks.

To learn more about the Forest Service’s More Kids in the Woods program and 2013 cost share funding recipients visit:

www.fs.usda.gov/main/conservationeducation/about/education-themes/kids-in-woods

www.fs.fed.us/news/2013/releases/05/more-kids-outdoors.shtml

Visit our newest form of communication - the Leaves of Change Weekly. This Wordpress site includes informational posts about upcoming conferences, Center activities, links to related articles, job announcements, and much more. You can sign up for the weekly to bi-weekly newsletter on the site at: www.leavesofchangeweekly.org