Over the next few months, we'll be highlighting the good works Project Canopy communities are doing all across the state. Check out the success stories our neighbors are sharing and find out how they are achieving them! Celebrate, Collaborate and Duplicate!
This issue, we focus on the City of Belfast and their ongoing commitment to greening their downtown. Read on and Green on!
(excerpt from 2023 Project Canopy Community Forestry Grant Application)
Belfast has a long-standing reputation for beautiful green spaces dating all the way back to the early 1900s with the creation of the Belfast Village Improvement Society - a group of dedicated women who were the moving spirit in making the City's streets and public places more attractive and inspiring many civic improvements including planting trees in the Belfast City Park. The City's downtown and neighboring streets have evolved and developed since that time; yet the City's tradition of tree advocacy has continued through the years.
In the 1980's a civic minded collection of volunteers created a group called "GreenStreets!" whose focus has been to plant trees in the parks and streets of Belfast. Their long term-goal to protect City street trees prompted the Belfast City Council to adopt a City Tree Ordinance in 2003. The Ordinance states that no tree can be planted, pruned or removed without approval from the Tree Warden and City Council. GreenStreets! continues to assist the City today by volunteering their services to assist with mulching and watering trees for each new urban forest project. More recently, additional efforts have been implemented to protect each one of their cherished street trees. Read more...
 The County - For the last three years work has been going on to assess, maintain and plan for the future of Houlton’s street trees.
This project initially began with Angie Wotton, district manager of the Southern Aroostook Soil and Water Conservation District, after conversations with other concerned citizens. The district received a Project Canopy grant in 2020 from the Maine Forest Service. The funds made possible the project “Taking Stock: Planning Houlton’s Tree Growth,” which focused on surveying many of Houlton’s street trees.
Surveys were conducted by 24 trained volunteers, who documented tree data such as condition and age of trees. The conservation district developed a written plan from the surveyed data and presented it to the town in 2021, but wasn’t able to present it to the town council formally until this past April. A second Project Canopy grant will plant 15 trees on three different streets in Houlton in September. Read more...
Why Urban Canopies Are Growing as Key Climate Infrastructure
 APA - From Seattle to Palm Beach, Florida, city leaders agree that urban areas need more trees to alleviate the effects of climate change. Leaders in many communities now consider trees to be critical infrastructure, providing shade, absorbing stormwater runoff, and filtering air pollution. The focus on urban forests has coincided with a growing recognition that low-income neighborhoods and communities of color often have far less tree cover — and suffer increased vulnerability to extreme heat as a result.
When Congress included $1.5 billion for urban forestry in the Inflation Reduction Act last year, the investment came after intensive lobbying from a group of six cities, known collectively as the Vanguard Cities Initiative, whose leaders made the case to federal policymakers that tree canopy could help mitigate climate change's effects.
Now those six cities — Albuquerque, Boulder, Chicago, Cleveland, Philadelphia, and Portland, Oregon — have helped to launch a series of learning and information-sharing programs to bring dozens more communities into the fold, in order to maximize the effectiveness of the soon-to-be-disbursed federal money. Read more...
Local trees offer potent defense against invaders: study
NASA, Forest Service to Share Moon Tree Seedlings, Promote STEM
Prioritizing Justice in New York State Climate Policy: Cleaner Air for Disadvantaged Communities?
Sept 16-17 - Women Foresters Collaborative Fall Gathering
Sept 22 - Maine Forest Carbon Workshop – Orono
Sept 23 - Maine's Ash Trees and Emerald Ash Borer - Unity
Sept 28 - Tree Pruning within Town Settings – Houlton
Sept 28 - Tree Pruning for Homeowners – Houlton
Oct 6 - Fall Tree Identification Walk - Bethel
Oct 16 - 20 - World Forum on Urban Forests - Wash. D.C.
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