Boylston ALB Meeting

Tonight at Boylston Middle/High School Clint McFarland from the USDA and Ken Gooch from the DCR spoke about the beetle that has now been found throughout the town of Boylston, there plans for surverying the area along with cutting infested trees and replantings. After the hour long presentation there was time for questions. One of the major points stressed was the importants of not transporting host species fire wood out of the quarentine zone, this leads to the unknown spread of the beetle. Overall people seem concerned that the beetle is in the area, but it is clear the USDA and DCR have a good plan established for how to handle everything. The other good news is the overall severity of the infestation in Boylston is not as bad as parts throughout the city of Worcester.

2010 Massachusetts Tree Steward Training Program

Today Peggy and I went to the first day of the Massachusetts Tree Steward Training Program at the Harvard Forest in Petersham, Massachusetts. The conference was presented by the Massachusetts DCR Urban & Community Forestry Program & Massachusetts Community Forestry Council. And was sponsored by: The USDA Forest Service and The Massachusetts Tree Wardens & Foresters Association.

We learned a variety of different things. We started the day with tree identification, then had a quick introduction to the working forest initiative, tree response to pruning, and then after lunch we learned about utilizing tree inventories and iTree. Then we finished the day with a look at Worcester as a case study.

The best part of the day was learning about utilizing tree inventories. We were introduced to google fusion tables. This is going to be a great resource for use to look at where all of our trees, keep records of all our tree health and create maps of where our trees are.

9:00 Registration and Coffee

9:30 Welcome and Overview
(Eric Seaborn & Alan Snow)

9:45 Tree Identification Outside
(Joe Perry)

10:45 Introduction to the Working
Forest Initiative (Douglas
Hutcheson & Michael
Downey)

11:30 Trees Response to Pruning
Out Doors (Brian Kane)

12:30 LUNCH, provided

1:30 Utilizing Tree Inventories
(Mike Olkin)

2:15 Break

2:30 Introduction to iTree Tools
(David Bloniarz)

3:30 Looking at Community
Trees, Worcester a Case
Study (Eric Seaborn)

Quinsigamond Community College

Saturday, October 23rd at Qunsigamond Community College from 8:30-12 we planted 65 trees with the help from the boy scouts and girl scouts. Congressman McGovern, Lt. Gov. Murray, Senator Chandler, Rep O'Day, Mayor O'Brien, City Manager O'Brien and representatives from QCC and the Scotties/ReLeaf project and American Forest were on hand. The event was sponsor by Scotties/RELeaf.

We were able to plant 65 trees in 7 different locations around the QCC campus. Spruce, Dawn Red Woods, Red Oaks, Serviceberries are just some of the species we planted. We added to the 100 trees that we previously planted with the help of CSX last spring. The weather was beautiful and everyone worked hard to learn how to properly plant a tree and then planted the trees. Everyone recieved goody bags from QCC and t-shirts/bags from Scotties REleaf. It was a great effort of the community coming together to help plant trees in one of the hardest hit areas.



Read about the day!

WTI in the Worcester Telegram

Holden Give Away

Today we held a give away at a new development called Shady Lane in Holden. We were able to give away 52 trees. The demonstration were held in peoples yard. We gave away flowering plums, dogwoods, blackgum tupelo and cherry trees. The developments in Holden have been stripped off all the trees in order to make room for houses, the developer is then responsable for "replanting" but most of the time only one or two trees are planted per lot. It is nice to be able to add more trees to these neighborhoods.

Midland Elementary School Planting

Today along with the kindergarden at Midland Street Elementary school we planted two cherry trees to help add some trees to the new place space that the school completed over the summer. The highlight of the day was when I poured the water into the hole all of the kids started yelling "gross! gross!" but after explaining to them the importance of water to the trees survival they didn't think it was as gross. They also really enjoyed when I was breaking the root ball apart, as I described it as if I were giving it a hair cut, they thought I had given the tree a really cool hair cut.

Tracking Update

We have been working hard to try and collect data regarding all of the trees we have planted throughout the last two years. We have started making progress on the 2009 residents. All of our trees from 2009 were planted in the Burncoat neighborhood.

From 2009 Residents:

44 Streets have been visited. 53 Streets need to be visited.

247 Addresses have been visited. 2009 Resident Total Number of Addresses: 1077

88 or 36% can’t be viewed from the street

2 Trees need to be stacked:

9 Cutting Avenue

100 Francis

2 Dead:

92 Francis

35 Randall Street (we have already removed the tree, died cause it was planted above to many roots)

2nd Give Away of the Fall.

Today was our second give away of the Fall at ERA Key Reality on East Mountain Street. We had a good turnout and were able to gave away over 50 trees. Many of our trees went to Blaire Drive in Holden MA where we are working with the street to help them add a few more trees to there neighborhood.

Main South Celebrates 2010!

Saturday, September 25th was Main South Celebrates in Crystal Park. It was a day all about celebrating the neighborhood and what it represents. There were over 40 organization involved with live music most of the day, kids activities, free hamburgers, hot dogs and veggie burgers, horse drawn carriage rides, paddle boat rides and tons of people enjoying the beautiful weather and each other. Worcester Tree Initiative had a table at the event, along with the Worcester Forestry Department. Worcester Tree Initiative handed out stickers, beetle tatooes and information about our upcoming tree planting events. The forestry department brought all of their trucks with them. The forestry spent part of there day lifting kids into trees swinging them high above the ground. Most kids were willing to participate, but a few were affraid, one was even worried he'd get a weggie. Tree planting demonstrations also took place at 12 and 1pm.

Start on th Street

Today was a beautiful day at Start on the Street. I handed out over 100 calendars to people informing them of our upcoming give away events and hopefully many of them will come and recieve there tree. The Asian Longhorned Beetle tattoos were a major hit as always. We hopefully found a few new people who are willing to volunteer, but overall we were able to get the word out about all of the important work that we are doing.

Give Away #1

Today was the first give away of the fall and much like the first give away of spring 2010 it was cold, wet and rainy. But no amount of rain is going to stop the determined staff of the Worcester Tree Initiative. We planted four trees (two kousa dogwoods and two kwanza cherry) at Duffy Field. Despite the weather we still had people come looking for trees. We had trees avaliable for people who had been trained on Saturday at the yard sale, but we also lead training seasons today. Despite the weather we had an okay turn out.

Sunday September 19th Worcester Tree Initiative will be tabeling at Start on the Street. Also on Sunday is Train the Trainers where our new volunteers learn about our program and how to properly plant a tree to begin instilling knowlegde upon new tree stewards.

Looking for something to do?

Tom Zetterstrom

Portraits of American Trees

August 25-October 29th

Opening Sept. 19 4-6:30pm

Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery

College of the Holy Cross

In gorgeous black-and-white images, he captures not just the natural grandeur of trees but their power to evoke deep yearnings in human viewers.

The Canaan, Conn., photographer's just-opened exhibit, "Tom Zetterstrom: Portraits of American Trees," transforms the Cantor Gallery at the College of the Holy Cross into a forest of photos where visitors can walk among maples and red pines, poplars and shagbark hickories.




Read about the opening!

September 11th Yard Sale

On Saturday, September 11th ERA Key Reality hosted a yard sale/ raffle with the intention of raising money for Worcester Tree Initiative. It was a beautiful day filled with lots of items being sold for 25 cents, with a few bigger priced items. ERA also organized a great raffle with prizes donated from many of the local businesses. At final count we raised somewhere between 1500 and 2000 dollars. Allen Snow, a DCR forester, lead a pruning class. We were also able to plant 3 flowering plum trees. It was a great day with members of the community working together to raise money for our great cause.



Some of the many items that were for sale.


Planting trees!

DCR Forester Allen Snow lead a pruning class.

WTI in the Worcester Telegram

Read the Article

Yard Sale to Benefit WTI

The Worcester Tree Initiative will be hosting:

• Tree Pruning Demonstrations
• Tree Planting Demonstrations
• Worcester Tree Initiative T-Shirts will be available for a $15 dollar donation

Get 'er done

We have had a very productive week!

Last Thursday we had a meeting with three of the DCR foresters who as in charge of collecting data about all of the trees that have been planted by the DCR and areas where trees are going to be collected this fall. I was able to learn how the program Geolink works. Using a tablet PC I am going to be able to go out throughout the city and mark on a map all of the areas where our trees are and collect information about the trees. I will be recording the health of the tree, if it's being watered, where it is located and who is in charge of the tree. It is exciting to be able to work in collaboration with the other groups to hopefully someday be able to create a map showing all of the areas where trees were cut down, but then the positive off all the places new trees were planted.

Below is a map created with help from Gideon at the Urban Ecology Institute in Boston that is a first draft of some of our points from the 2009 planting season. We hope to eventually be able to have a map showing all of our trees throughout the city and what season they were planted in.



This morning we had a preliminary meeting to discuss the creation of a youth tree stewards program similar to the YouthGrow program that is already established in Main South. The overall goal for the program is to provide jobs and mentor people while teaching the importance of the environment and taking care off all the trees that are being planted throughout the city.

September 11th is quickly approaching marking the start to the fall 2010 planting season!

"Lurking in the Trees"

Airing on WGBH 2 in Boston this Sunday August 15th at 1pm!

"Lurking in the Trees" is a 30 minute documentary about what happened to a community infested with an invasive tree killing insect. It is a true story of devastation, cooperation, and renewal. Make sure to watch for the Worcester Tree Initiative Steering Committee Co-Chair Mary Herlihy Knittle.

It started when a sinister-looking bug fell on someones lap in a backyard on a summer afternoon. That chance discovery led to a terrible realization: insect-invaders from Asia were killing trees in New England, and the only way to stop the pests was to cut down and grind up over 25,000 trees. Worcester, MA could be any town in America — not too big, not too small — but it learned that, in today’s world of nearly infinite international trade, an invasive pest can sneak in, become established, and wreak havoc, unless citizens are informed and vigilant.

Trailer for Lurking in the Trees

Lurking in the Trees Website

Office Work...

Today was a day spent in the office preparing for the fast approaching fall planting season. We worked on a donation envelope, "calendar of events" handouts, memorial tree donation, planning events, updating the website and Facebook and working on imputing data into the tree database.

In the Spring of 2010 we:

*Gave away 250 FREE trees to residents who planted them in their yards *Trained over 600 people on the proper way to plant and care for a tree
*Engaged 2600 school students who planted trees in their schoolyards
*Certified ten "tree trainers"
*Planted 300 trees with 13 schools and community groups
*Displayed at festivals and community events

BUGGED: The Race to Eradicate ALB

Wednesday, August 4, 2010 at The Worcester Public Library

3 Salem Square, Saxe RoomWorcester, MA508-799-1655
Two Shows: 2:00PM and 6:00PM
ALB Experts Rhonda Santos and Clint McFarland of the USDA Asian Longhorned Beetle Eradication Program in Worcesterwill discuss their roles in the film and answer your questions!


Bugged is "...frankly one of the most comprehensive and best educational documentaries on ALB that has been made to date....Now, more than ever, the general public needs to remain observant and vigilant in case ALB shows up in your city or neighborhood. This short film will broaden one's view of this most important and unwanted pest!"

-Richard Hoebeke, Taxonomic and Survey Entomologist, Cornell University

About the Documentary:Alien invaders live hidden among us. The Asian longhorned beetle (ALB) is one of the world's worst invasive species and could destroy one third of America's trees. Now, for the first time, the ALB infests a city (Worcester) on the edge of a natural forested area. Follow the scientists, USDA officials and private citizens who are the front lines in the Asian longhorned beetle eradication war.
Bugged is the first documentary to present the national story of the ALB infestation in America and to explore the science of eradication.

An idea of what is to come...

Fall 2010 Calendar of Events:

Saturday September 11th 9am-3pm: ERA Key Realty Garage Sale Fundraising Event (Tree Planting Demonstrations, Pruning Demonstrations, along with ways to contribute to our efforts)

Tuesday September 14th 5pm-7pm: Rain Date Tree Give Away

Thursday September 16th 5pm-7pm: Tree Give Away

Sunday September 19th 3pm-5pm: Train the Trainers (please register by emailing Ruth at ruth@treeworcester.org)

September 20th-24th: School Planting Week

Saturday September 25th 10am-5pm: Main South Celebrates (Crystal Park)

Saturday October 2nd 10am-12pm: Tree Give Away

Saturday October 16th 10am-12pm: Peace Park Planting

Wednesday October 20th 4pm-6pm: Tree Give Away

Saturday October 23rd 10am-12pm: Quinsigamond Community College Planting with the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts.


Ruth's Letter to the Telegram Editor

WTI in the News

Worcester Tree Initiative in the Boston Globe

Worcester Tree Initiative in the Telegram

After six trees were found to be infested, with the Asian Longhorned Beetle, in Boston last week, people wanted to know more about the efforts to battle the beetle going on in Worcester. Mary Knittle, quoted in the article, is our steering committee co-chair and a long time Worcester resident. The Worcester Tree Initiative, along with the Worcester Forestry department and Department of Conservation and Recreation, are working together to replant and replace the 27,000 trees that have already been cut down. Our efforts are not just in response to the Asain Longhorned Beetle infestation, but also the 2008 ice storm damage. Worcester was in need of trees before any of this happened. We are focused on planting a variety of different trees, which will help to possible prevent this type of situation in the future. Once the trees are planted residents need to do there part to water and take care of the trees that are being planted. If planted properly and taken care correctly the trees being planted now will hopefully live for 80 years. We have only just begun to complete the task of replanting.

Check in Day...

Today Ruth and I went around to all of the schools where we have planted trees and checked in to see how everything is going. Are the trees being watered? Do they need mulch? Stakes?

Doherty- Great Job!
Holden Mayo- Being taken care of.
South High- We watered all of the trees, but there are signs of them having been watered. Need Mulch. Linden has been cut off in the middle.
Clark St.- Watered pears, need to contact school to discuss a watering plan. The dogwoods look good. One tree needs to be staked.
City View--In need of water. Trees along side were never planted.
Woodland Academy- Arborvitaes look slightly brown, but other three look great.
Nelson Place- signs being watered, Tupelo slightly distressed
Rice Square- Four good, the rest are in critical condition, one is dead. Need Stakes.
Goddard Elementary- One bent over needs stake. Slight need of water, but no clear signs of distress
Queen/King- Look Great!
May St.- Dead Cherry, rest look good.
Belmont- One need stake, Need Mulch, slight distress
Worcester State- They staked all the trees, look great!
Bancroft-Need Stakes, look good.
Thorndyke- Look Good
Worcester Volc Tech- Alive, but feel as if they are in the middle of a random place, not being taken care of.
Francis McGrath- The Plum was dead, blown over. Good water. Active Principal.
QCC- Need to work with them about watering, have Gators but empty.
Mass Audubon- Look good.

Love That Dirty Water...

The Asian Longhorned Beetle has moved East and officially been found in Boston. Six infested trees were cut down yesterday at the Faulkner Hospital. Unlike in Worcester, where the removal of 25,000 trees has occured in the past 2 years. This threat does not seem to have spread out of this specific area, which is close to the arboretum.


Boston Beetle Infestation

Boston Globe Beetle Video

Last Give Away Event of the Spring

After a rainy, thuderstormy day on the original day we postponded to the following week and had our final give away event. We held it at Worcester State College from 10-12 on Saturday, June 19th. We were able to give away 66 trees. We planted 4 Red Oak trees along the tennis courts. This was our best give away event of the spring. Almost everyone got a tree that they were happy with, all of the forms were filled out properly and the trainings were very informative and people asked tons of really great questions.

Please remember to water your tree (5 gallons, 3 times a week).

Last Planting of the Spring!

Today was the final planting of the spring. With the help of the Worcester Forestry Department, we planted 12 arborvitaes and 5 spruce at the new Main South CDC houses on Kilby St. The trees will eventually provide a barrier between the parking lot and the house. This was truly an example of a community working together to get a planting done. It was a partnership between the Worcester Forestry Department, Worcester Tree Initiative and the Main South CDC.



Forester Dennis, Director of the Main South CDC Steve Teasdale, Property Maintenance Supervisor Isaia Perez

Demetrius and Graham moving a tree

Forester Brain, Forester Dennis and CDC Steve

Steve and Isaia

Roger unloading the truck

Clean Up Everybody Where, Clean Up, Clean Up, Everybody Do Your Share

The last two days have been spend pulling together the final pieces of the "spring 2010 season" in order to transition into the summer. Yesterday we had a staff meeting to discuss what needs to get done this summer, and what everyone is going to be doing. Our main focus points of the summer are fundraising and tree data collection.

Today Ruth and I spent the day driving around doing tree related activities. We went to Belmont Community School to pick up a photo book that they made us of the day we were there planting trees. We watered trees at Clark St. School. Mulched trees at Dohertry High School. Removed a tree that had died, due to a high wind area blowing the tree out of the hole, at Fransic McGrath. Delivered a tree to a persons house, and called more people to come pick up trees in Ruth's yard. Overall a busy tree day!

Rain Check

Happy Belated Start to Summer!

It's the final days of planting season. We have ONE planting left July 1st at the Main South CDC on Kilby St.

Yesterday was our final rain check event. Rain checks are for people who attended a giveaway event during the spring, but did not receive the species of tree that they were planning to receive. We order a tree for every person who received a rain check. Then it is my job to get in contact with everyone to let them know when the event is going to be held. At the event I make sure everyone gets the tree that they asked for. Rain check events are nice because they are not as crazy as giveaway events and there is time to talk to people about the trees that they are taking home to plant in there yards. We still have a few trees left to get out, but our final count is close to 600 trees for the spring.

Tonight is our Thank You Volunteer Cook Out at Green Hill Park!

Francis McGrath

After spending a few days at the i-Tree conference, Friday with the help of the Worcester Forestry Department we were back out in the field planting trees. We planted seven trees at Fancis McGrath Elementary School. We worked with the first, second and third grades. Of all the schools that we have worked with this spring, this school has a school yard that needs a lot of clean up work. By planting these trees it was a small change, but it will go a long way to making the school yard more attractive. Working with the Forestry Department is always a lot of fun, and they are really helpful in the process; bringing along a water truck to water the trees, stakes, and are great teaching the students about the importance of trees and how to plant them.

Why what we are doing is important!

i-Tree ECO, STORM, VUE, Species, Hydro

Today was day two of the i-Tree conference. Topics covered were ECO, STORMS, Hydro, Vue, and Species. Francisco Escobedo from the University of Florida led the discussion about i-Tree ECO. i-Tree ECO works to calculate the ecological benefits of an area. The best way to use the application is to find an area and pick 200 random points. Each plot is about .1 acre circle with a 37'2'' radius. Then it is necessary to go out and find the mid-point of all the plots and record measurements. In order to measure the energy effects all trees taller than 20ft within 60ft of a residential building have to be measured, this collects information about the shade and the reduced energy cost. Information about DBH, height, location, crown size, die back, ground cover is necessary to collect. Once all the data is entered it is then sent to Syracuse to UFORE for reports to be created. Individual trees can also be recorded, which reduces the need for random plots and allows for information about trees in parks and yards to be collected unlike in STREETS. Chris Donnelly from the CT DEP spoke about his first hand knowledge with UFOR and his application of the program in Hartford, CT.

i-Tree STORMS is used to create an easy and accurate estimate of the potential tree storm damage and the total cost for recovery. Pre-Storm Sample Surveys need to be conducted of 2-3% of the mileage. Data about tree density and size class for all trees within the Right of Way (ROW) and 50ft back. Once all the pre-storm data is collect, after a storm hits assessments can be made, put into the model and within 24-36 hours of the original storm an estimate for the total cost of recovery is created.

We also learned about other i-Tree utilities and applications such as Hydro, i-Tree Vue and i-Tree Species.

Overall I learned a lot and it sparked a lot of really cool potential project ideas. Now it's back to one more week of tree planting!

i-Tree Streets

Today Peggy and I traveled to Portsmouth, NH to attend a two day training for the program i-Tree. The event is being sponsored by University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension, New Hampshire Division of Forests and Lands, and the U.S. Forest Service. We arrived at 8:30am and began an intense day learning all about i-Tree Streets. This program is designed to go out in the field and walk along streets, mostly in urban areas, identifying tree species and DBH. Using this information along with data about damage to the tree analysis about the area can be conducted. The program allows you to look at things like benefit-cost analysis reports, annual benefits (energy, storm water, air quality, carbon dioxide, carbon stored), management costs, net annual benefits, resource structural analysis and many other things. It's a great tool for showing why tree budgets are needed, what trees should be planted, and if areas are on the right track in terms of the long term planting plan. We also worked with IPED which is the pest evaluation and detection program. We were able to go outside for part of the day and collect data in the field using a PDA. Mollie Freilicher from the DCR talked about real applications for i-Tree Streets. Tomorrow we are going to learn all about i-Tree Eco.



IPED in the field (youtube)

IPED Key

Go Celtics!!!

Doherty Memorial High School

Thursday we worked with the environmental club to plant five flowering plums at Doherty Memorial High School. Even as the end of school is quickly approaching the student were motivated, even asking there friends walking by, to help transform the appearance of the front of the school. In total this week we planted 28 trees at four different schools.

Worcester Tree Initiative Staff: Maggie, Ruth, Peggy.

;

Environmental Club at Doherty High

Belmont Community School

Today we worked with two of the kindergarden classes from Belmont Community School. Each class got to help shovel dirt into the hole, play in the mud and hold a worm. The classes promised that they would continue to water the trees each week, with the help of there teachers, using watering cans. The trees are planted outside of there classrooms so for the rest of the year they will be able to look out the window and know that they helped to make a difference. The hope is that they will continue to look after the trees each year that they attend Belmont Community School.

After leading the two trainings, Ruth and I stayed to plant five more trees. In total we planted two ginkos, one red oak, one blackgum tupelo, one honeylocus and one Cleveland select pear.

What a productive day!

"Education is only a ladder to gather fruit from the tree of knowledge, not the fruit itself"

Holden Mayo Elementary School

Today we worked with the 1st grade at the Mayo Elementary School in Holden. The day started off with members of the USDA APHIS program talking with the students about the Asian Longhorned Beetle. They discussed the importance of reporting a beetle sighting and what the USDA's role is in the Asian Longhorned Beetle problem. With the help of UEI we then led four trainings at one time. We planted four Cleveland select flowering pears and one flowering plum. The students we able to help put dirt into the hole, stomped the dirt down and learn about the importance of planting trees and why trees are important to the environment. All of the students asked many great questions and promised to water the trees.







Making sure the hole isn't to deep.

Chris from UEI leading a training.

The USDA talking with the students.

Yesterday we held a memorial planting for Maxine Levy, wife of Steering Commite Co-Chair Jordan Levy.
Memorial Tree Planting for Maxine Levy

"Oak trees come out of acorns, no matter how unlikely that seems. An acorn is just a tree's way back into the ground. For another try. Another trip through. One life for another." --Shirley Ann Grau

South High

Saturday's event at Worcester State was postponed due to a weather prediction of hail and thunderstorms along with a tornado warning. We are planning on having it this Saturday, June 12th at the same time and place as last week.

Today may have been junior skip day at South High School, but we worked with two of Mrs. Snay AP Environmental Science classes and they did absolutely AMAZING work. We did two demonstrations to teach the kids on the proper way to plant a tree. After the demonstrations the kids broke up into groups and worked as teams to dig the holes and plant the trees. Throughout the entire day the students were asking questions, and working hard to get all of the trees planted. One kid who does not like to get his socks dirty, even picked up a shovel and did his part to help dig one of the holes. Some of the kids stayed longer during lunch to help finish planting one of the trees. The students were willing to truly get there hands covered with mud. It was really fun to plant the 11 trees with these students. They were able to get out of the classroom and make a difference in the appearance of the school grounds.

"A man doesn't plant a tree for himself. He plants it for posterity."--Alexander Smith

I'm ready, I'm ready, I'm ready?

We have a wicked busy week ahead:

• Tomorrow is our last give away event of the spring at Worcester State College from 10-12.

• Monday we are planting 11 trees at South High School

• Tuesday we are planting 5 trees at Mayo Elementary School in Holden

• Wednesday we are planting trees at the Belmont Community School

• Thursday afternoon we are planting 5 flowering plums at Doherty Memorial High School

Today was spent preparing and making sure that everything is organized for all of the events. We need to know when the nursery is going to deliver the trees, be able to unload the truck when it arrives, move trees we have in other locations to the correct sites, have site plans created, coordinate with the people at the event sites and make sure all the supplies get to the right locations.

Trees and Beetles in the News:

Beetle Battle May Harm Bees NECN Clip

Read about Peggy's Kitchen

Listen to a song about the Asian Longhorned Beetle

"When you have seen one ant, one bird, one tree, you have not seen them all. "--E.O. Wilson

Happy June!

Only about two more weeks left in the planting season before it gets too HOT! Things are crazy around the WTI office trying to get trees in the ground. We have one last giveaway event, at least five more school plants and a few community groups.

This morning Ruth and I took a trip over to Worcester State College to plan out our giveaway event on Saturday, June 5th from 10Am-12pm. It will be the last community giveaway of the spring, but have no fear because we will be holding giveaway events again in the fall.

Pictures below are from the Clark St. School Giveaway May 27th taken by one of our great volunteers, Sammi.

The rest of the day was spent in the office adding information to our Spring 2010 tree database, calling and emailing people back and letting people know about our next rain check event.

"The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see Nature all ridicule and deformity, and some scarce see Nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, Nature is Imagination itself." -- William Blake

"Community Tree"

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

I just wanted to share with everyone a story that Peggy Middaugh (project coordinator) told me:

We had a Red Oak tree that needed to be planted outside of a WHCR house at 866 Main St. At about 1:30 on Friday Peggy got her car all packed up with shovels, mulch and went on a quest to find volunteers. She stopped at the Artichoke Food Co-Op (an organic food market) and asked "Does anybody want to help plant a tree?" Doro said he'd help but had to work until 2. Peggy told him where she was going to be and he said he would drop by after work. Peggy drove Bailey (her dog/WTI mascot) to the Main South CDC, where we had been keeping the tree. As she was putting the tree in her truck Justice walked by and asked "do you need help?" When he found out that it was only going one block, he picked it up and walked it over. "I just got through planting 6 trees on Clifton Place" he said. What a huge help he was moving the tree! Then he helped cut the pot open and take the tree out. Unlike the Honelylocus from the other day, it was in beautiful shape! Hardly any encircling roots, and not at all pot bound. Peggy dug the hole, several people walked by and asked about it. One man asked for a cigarette but said he couldn't work, and a woman was so excited about a tree but was late for work so couldn't help. When the hole was finished and the tree out of the pot, Doro came by on his bike. We filled in the hole, watered the tree, asked a resident at 866 for more water (which he cheerfully supplied, filled up several gallon jugs with water), and mulched it heavily. It blew in the breeze. It's beautiful! Thanks to Justice and Doro for making it happen! And all of the other community members for their good will. I think we should plant more "community" trees this way.

"Humanity is the rich effluvium, it is the waste and the manure and the soil, and from it grows the tree of the arts." - Ezra Pound

Giving Away Trees

WOW today was a great day! It was the third giveaway event of the spring. The event was held at the Clark Street School, where previously this spring we had done a planting with students and the Worcester Forestry Department. 66 trees arrived from the nursery at 4pm and by 7pm they had all found new homes spread out across the city in peoples yards. The 66 day along with the rain checks and other two giveaway events brings the total number of trees given away this spring to over 200. We had a variety of tree species available today; crabapples, flowering pears, flowering plums, serviceberry, Red Oak, and Blackgum Tupelo. It is great to see people and families come to our event to take a 30 minute training on the proper way to plant a tree and then be able to go home with a tree that will help to transform the look of there yards. People who come to receive a tree range from having a ton of knowledge about trees to none at all, but everyone always says that they learn at least one new thing each time they take the training class. Everyone who comes for a tree has a story or reason why they want a tree. One man had 22 trees cut down down in his yard due to the Asian Longhorn Beetle infestation, and another person had trees cut down up and down their street. Each person has there own unique story, but everyone is always happy to take a tree home with them.

Yesterday we had a rain check day at the Green Hill Park Forestry Department. People who had already been trained this season were able to come and pick up trees that we had run out of or where unavailable at the Greendale YMCA giveaway event. We do our best to get everyone the tree that they envision for their yard.

Be sure to check out the story on the Channel 3 11pm news.

"The other day when I was walking through the woods, I saw a rabbit standing in front of a candle making shadows of people on a tree"- Stephen Wright

Good News!

This morning I found out that the Worcester Tree Initiative is going to match the funding that I received from the Barth Summer Internship Award from Clark University. I am very excited and thankful to both the Barth Summer Internship Award and WTI for supporting my work.

Today it's HOT, but that doesn't stop the determined tree initiative staff. We went out with our shovels in hand and planted a honeylocust at 5 King St. which is part of the Worcester housing resource commission (WHRC). It took use over an hour and a half to plant this tree, a project that should not take more than a half hour. The tree was extremely pot bound and all the roots had become entangled. In order for a tree to survive it is necessary to break apart the root ball when you take it out of the pot. We had to use every tool to try and break this solid root entanglement apart. But we managed to out smart the tree and it is now happily planted in the side yard of the 5 King St. apartment building.

We had a site visit today at Doherty High School, where we are going to work with there environmental club to plant ornamental trees along the front of the building later in June. It's exciting to work with kids in high school because they can really work to take ownership of the trees, truly help to plant them and also become even more involved with the Worcester Tree Initiative. I am also going to Forest Grove Middle School to take a look at trees we planted last Spring, a few of which had a rough Winter and did not survive. We are working with a teacher there to try and help them find replacement trees.

“For in the true nature of things, if we rightly consider, every green tree is far more glorious than if it were made of gold and silver.”--Martin Luther

May 24th

It's Monday!

Whenever we work with schools or community groups before we do the event we first must conduct a site visit. This morning we did two site visits one at Belmont Community School and another at Francis McGrath Elementary School, where we will be doing planting events in June. During the site visits we walked around with the principals talking to them about locations where they would want trees to be planted and discuss species that would work well in each location. Our goal is to plant trees at every school in Worcester. We also talk about which classes we will be working with and how many students will be involved. After a site visit it's my job to create the site plan. Using Google Earth I am able to find an image of the school and then using paint I place dots and label where each tree will go.


(This is the Francis McGrath Site Plan)

Wednesday night we are holding a rain check event, where people who were trained at our Greendale YMCA event can come and pick up trees, if we did not have the species that they requested. Much of the day was spent contacting people letting them know when the event was happening (Greenhill Park at the Forestry Dept.) and asking if they would be available to attend. We try to work with people to find a time that is convenient for them to pick up their trees.

We are holding our 3rd giveaway event of the spring on Thursday night at Clark St. School. People are able to preregister for a tree by emailing us (treewarden@treeworcester.org) and letting telling us that they are interested in getting a tree, what species it is that they are looking for and which event they will be able to attend. Information about which trees species are available is listed on our website www.treeworcester.org.

Watch a video of me at the Clark Sustainability Fair

"People who will not sustain trees will soon live in a world which cannot sustain people"-- Bryce Nelson

Welcome!

Hi my name is Maggie Small and I am the tree warden for the Worcester Tree Initiative. I started as a volunteer intern with WTI in September 2009 and throughout the year have fallen in love with the City of Worcester and the work of the Worcester Tree Initiative. This summer I received funding from the Barth Internship Award at Clark Univerisity which will allow me to continue my work.

The Worcester Tree Initiative is a private, non-profit effort to reforest the City of Worcester and surrounding communities. It was Initiated in January 2009 by Congressman Jim McGovern and Lt. Governor Tim Murray with the intent of planting 30,000 trees in Worcester and surrounding towns in the next 5 years. The Initiative is a public/private partnership between the City of Worcester, Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, the US Department of Agriculture, many local non-profits, businesses and residents of Central Massachusetts. The program includes intensive outreach, education and training, and long term tracking to realize significant environmental and quality of life improvements with this community based approach.

This spring we have already accomplished many great things:

With the help of the Worcester Forestry Department the week of April 26th - April 30th we worked with 8 Worcester Public Schools planting over 90 trees and educating over a 1,000 students on the proper way to plant a tree.

We have held two giveaway events and have two more to still host (May 27th and June 5th). At the giveaways we do a 30 minute demonstration on the proper way to plant a tree and then those who attend the event are able to take a tree home. We offer a variety of different tree species ornimental, shade and evergreen. In total we have already given away over 100 trees at giveaway events this spring.

We have also worked with community groups:

May 1st we planted 100 trees at Quinsigamond Community college with the help of volunteers from CSX, City Year, and Quinsigamond communtiy college.

With the help of volunteers from Clark University on "Just Do It Day" we planted 5 trees for the WHRC.

We have also done plantings at Great Brook Valley and May Flower Circle.

Upcoming events still to come this spring:

2 Giveaways (May 27th and June 5th) along with more schools and community events.

“For a tree to become tall it must grow tough roots among the rocks.”-- Friedrich Nietzche