The Providential Gardener

News from Providence Neighborhood Planting Program

 A True Environmental Steward Leaves Her Mark

After almost eight years of dedicated service, Jennifer Cole is stepping down from her role as Director of the Providence Neighborhood Planting Program this month and relocating to Virginia.  At a farewell party held in her honor this past Wednesday the 6th, the city awarded Ms Cole three commendations for her work. 

During her time at PNPP, Ms Cole organized the planting of at least 3000 trees, won a RI Tree Council award for community outreach, and worked through personnel changes in both the City Parks Superintendent and the City Forester positions.  Outside of her work at PNPP, Ms Cole has also helped to open the Conservation Law Foundation office where she worked for four years on urban environmental advocacy issues.  In addition, she served for five years as a Mayoral appointed member of the City Planning Commission.  Ms Cole has said that she is very proud of the impact she has had on incoming developers, who now frequently present their landscaping plan first to the City Planning Commission when making development proposals.  Here are her thoughts on leaving; "I’m not sure what I'll be doing next and I can only hope it is as fulfilling and valuable to the community as my time with the PNPP has been.  I am looking forward to a new city and new challenges but I will be leaving pieces of my heart in Providence, kept safe with friends and a legacy of important work.  I will miss the city, and its great potential, dearly."

New Director for PNPP

Stepping in as the new Director of PNPP is Liz Downing.  Downing grew up in Providence and received her BS in Environmental Science and Management from the University of Rhode Island.  She has run her own ecologically friendly garden maintenance, design and installation business for the past 5 years as a means of developing scarce wildlife habitat within the human habitat. Ms Downing is “excited to expand the scale of my work to citywide reforestation, honored to walk in the footsteps of those who created this program and to work alongside the Providence residents who join together to manifest our city’s full potential.”

Contact information:
Providence Neighborhood Planting Program c/o Groundwork Providence, Inc.
8 Third Street
Providence RI 02906
401-351-6440 x13

Providence Neighborhood Planting Program Seeks Director

From Doug Still (Providence City Forester):

The Providence Neighborhood Planting Program is a street tree planting and maintenance partnership between the City of Providence, the Mary Elizabeth Sharpe Street Tree Endowment, and the people of Providence, Rhode Island.

Providence's innovative citizen planting program, established in the fall of 1988, offers tree grants to neighborhood planting groups, twice a year. Purchase of trees for qualifying groups is funded jointly by the City of Providence and the Mary Elizabeth Sharpe Street Tree Endowment, an Advised Fund of the Rhode Island Foundation. Groundwork Providence serves as PNPP’s Fiscal Agent.

Over 6000 street trees have been planted through the program, at a current rate of 450-500 trees per year.  Plantings are scheduled on Saturdays in or around April and October.  The full job_description gives the duties and required skills. Applications must be received by January 7, 2008.

Mayor Cicilline Announces Street Tree Survey Results

On this first day of summer 2007, Providence's Mayor David Cicilline held a press conference under a giant silver maple (it's 40" in diameter at chest height)  at Nathanael Greene Middle School to present the results of last year's Providence street tree tally. The press release on the city's website gives many of the details, and City Forester Doug Still summarized the key findings of the tree inventory. We (I was one of the 96 volunteers) counted 24,999 trees and identified 95 different species.

These trees are valuable in more ways than you might guess. Of course they add beauty, and it's lovely to be in their shade on hot summer days. But trees improve air quality, consume carbon, save $$ spent on electricity and gas for air conditioning, absorb storm water runoff, and increase property values. Doug used a new US Forest Service program, STRATUM, to calculate the value of Providence's STREET trees (this is not including all the trees in parks and private property, just the 25,000 along our 370 miles of city streets) and found that Providence's street trees contribute more than $2.9 million/year in benefits to residents each year.

The replacement value of Providence's STREET trees is almost $82 million. Trees, especially mature trees, on your property are valuable, and you should not rush to remove any tree from your property without considering a wide range of factors. In fact, Providence and other towns and cities have ordinances that protect some trees on private property.

Mayor Announcing the Street Tree Survey Results

Doug Still, Providence City Forester, sends word that Mayor Cicilline will announce the Providence Street Tree Survey results on Thursday, June 21, at 10 am, on Oakland Avenue between Chalkstone Avenue and Smith Street, near Nathanael Greene Middle School. The location is across from the park, under a 40" silver maple tree next to the sidewalk, appropriately enough.

Doug asks all street tree talliers to wear their bright green Street Tree Tally shirts. All are welcome. I'll post the detailed results after the Mayor makes the announcement. So Tally-ho until then.

Providence Street Tree Inventory Results are In!

On Wednesday, June 6, Providence City Forester Doug Still will present the results of the city's Street Tree Tally conducted in the summer of 2006 by more than 100 volunteers. Brown University is hosting the event, which will be in MacMillan Hall, room 115 (corner of George and Thayer Streets ~ enter from Manning Walk). The presentation begins at 7:00pm, and further info is in this flyer.

It was a very cool learning opportunity to participate in the survey. Another volunteer and I spent several hours on several days walking our section, identifying the species, discussing the health of the trees, measuring them, etc. We and the other volunteers collected, and recorded in Palm Pilots, detailed data on every street tree. The Providence City News interviewed me about the Street Tree Tally last July, and that story gives some more detail about the project.

During the last several months, Doug has been working with the data in a U.S. Forest Service software program called STRATUM that quantifies the actual benefits street trees provide to our environment. Providence is one of the first cities to use this new program to evaluate its street trees. I can't wait to hear the results of our work!

A Flare for Planting Trees

Planting trees was one of the topics on the Garden Guys show on March 18, 2007. Read on so you can develop a flair for planting trees. The secret is the tree trunk's flare.

(By the way, the Garden Guys' program is now streamed" which means that if you are away from the local airwaves that carry  their show,  you can hear it live from anywhere by clicking on the little radio on their website, www.garden-guys.com. So now every Sunday from 8 to 10 am you can hear The Garden Guys through any online computer, even if you are in Europe or Nebraska! Great news, and thanks for implementing this, WHJJ!

Most important is FLARE CARE. Trees are ALIVE and need to BREATHE in their own way. Folks, the FLARE is where the TREE BREATHES. When the Garden Guys explained that the trunk flare had to be exposed, NOT covered with mulch, the caller with the tree question asked what the flare of a tree is. Here are some links to more information, and some great pictures.

Tree Organizations in Rhode Island

I've just received notice of the Newport Tree Society's lecture, Protecting, Preserving, and Rejuvenating Newport's Aging Urban Forest, to be held on March 6, 2007, 7:00 p.m. at The Pell Center. You may not have realized it, but because of Newport's mild climate and wealthy residents who have been planting trees for more than one hundred years, Newport has a spectacular collection of extraordinary, enormous trees from all over the world.

Following the meeting, a few low-cost specimen trees, grown at local nurseries, will be for sale (pick up at a later date). This is a fabulous list of trees! Red Oak, Dawn Redwood, Rivers Purple Beech, Blue Atlas Cedar....

Many organizations care about the trees in Rhode Island. Of course there is the Rhode Island Tree Council, TreeLink (which is somewhat out of date), and the RI Division of Forest Management. Several cities have tree codes and regulations, and some have tree wardens. Providence has a City Forester. Nine Rhode Island towns/cities are recognized as holding the official title, Tree City USA. The Land Trusts also actively care for our forests and woodlands.

Some other cities and towns in Rhode Island have their own active organizations dedicated to trees, many of which are city/town commissions. Here are a few of them:

• Bristol Tree Commission
• Middletown Tree Commission
• Newport Tree Commission
• Tiverton Tree Commission
• Warren Tree Commission
• Warwick Tree Commission

These are only some of the groups concerned about Rhode Island's trees and forests. Send news about your town's tree-planning and -caretaking activities.

Arbor Day in Rhode Island, April 27

This is a big day for news from the Rhode Island Tree Council. They are planning an Arbor Day Tree Planting across Rhode Island, "Plant-A-Legacy," on Friday, April 27. Flowering and shade trees will be planted to beautify and preserve the landscape. 

Sponsors of the Day are The Mihaildes Family Foundation, RI Federation of Garden Clubs, RI DEM Forest Environment, and the USDA Forest Service.

Providence Street Tree Tally News

Doug Still, the Providence City Forester, is analyzing the data collected by more than 100 volunteers who surveyed the street trees in Providence last summer. He expects to announce the comprehensive results in the next couple of months. Providence will be one of the first cities on the East Coast to analyze street tree data using STRATUM, new software developed by the U.S. Forest Service that quantifies the benefits provided by our trees.

Hazard Trees & Trees, People, and the Law

Full Day Seminars
Hazard Trees / Trees, People, & the Law
Providence, Rhode Island, March 6-7, 2007