What Grows On in Rhode Island News

Providence Street Tree Applications due January 15, 2013

Apply by January 15 for Spring 2013 Street Trees from PNPP

Contact: Liz Downing, Director 401.368-5380 [email protected]

8 Third Street Providence, RI 02906

If you are interested in planting trees in your neighborhood this Spring, now is the time to apply for a Neighborhood Street Tree Planting Award from PNPP. Applications are due Tuesday January 15, 2013 and require a bit of legwork in your neighborhood to complete, so act now to meet the deadline.

The Providence Neighborhood Planting Program (PNPP) is a partnership of the Mary Elizabeth Sharpe Street Tree Endowment, the City of Providence and Providence residents that plants trees in Providence neighborhoods along sidewalks. Since 1988, The Mary Elizabeth Sharpe Street Tree Endowment has matched Providence Parks Department funds to provide trees, soil, sidewalk preparation, and tree delivery at no cost to Providence residents who apply for and receive a Neighborhood Street Tree Planting Award. To date, PNPP has planted 9,530 street trees with the help of 753 neighborhood groups.

To receive street trees through the Neighborhood Street Tree Planting Award, neighborhoods will need a volunteer to complete the application and help PNPP organize the planting. Complete applications include: requests from at least five properties for at least one tree at each property within a one to two city block area and a commitment from the property owners and/or residents requesting trees to plant their tree on planting day, water the tree weekly and weed the area around the tree regularly. If a resident requesting a tree does not own the property, PNPP will need documentation of property owner consent to the tree planting.

 PNPP considers Elmwood, Federal Hill, Lower and Upper South Providence, Olneyville, Reservoir, Smith Hill, Valley, Washington Park and West End neighborhoods high priority planting areas and encourages applications from these neighborhoods especially. However, all Providence neighborhoods are eligible for tree awards.

This fall, PNPP facilitated the planting of 225 street trees in the following Providence Neighborhoods: Blackstone, Charles, Elmhurst, Elmwood, Federal Hill, Reservoir, Valley, and West End.

Trees 2020 (Trees2020.org) offers low cost trees for private property planting. When PNPP applicants order a minimum of 5 trees for private property through Trees 2020, PNPP will deliver all the trees together, helping their neighborhood to plant as many trees as possible in one day.

Please consider giving a tax-deductible donation to the Mary Elizabeth Sharpe Street Tree Endowment (MESSTE), an advised fund of the Rhode Island Foundation. Your donation will go toward street tree planting throughout Providence.

Smoky-winged Beetle Bandit Biosurveillance Survey

Request for Volunteers!

I am looking for volunteers to help me with our 2012 United States Department of Agriculture smoky-winged beetle bandit biosurveillance survey! The USDA and Rhode Island DEM have been cooperating on this survey for three years. This insect is NOT harmful to Humans!!! It DOES NOT STING HUMANS!!!

What it DOES DO is find Buprestidae beetles from the tree canopy of the surrounding forest, stun them, carry them back to their nests and bury them as food for their young. We find this to be helpful because it is very DIFFICULT for US to find Buprestidae beetles!!! Therefore, we use the smoky-winged beetle bandit to get to the Buprestidae beetles from the treetops.

What I need from volunteers:

People who are willing to visit baseball fields  multiple times in July to collect Buprestidae beetles from the smoky-winged beetle bandit.  Collection is either by finding Buprestidae beetles that were discarded by the nests or by netting the Smoky Winged beetle bandit and taking the Buprestidae beetles from her… and then releasing her to go catch more! The smoky winged beetle bandit is NOT HARMED in this process!!! We try to collect 50 beetles at each site if possible!  I will have a training day in June for anybody who is willing to participate in this survey.

The beetles collected from this survey typically are wood-boring insects.  Therefore, the species collected give us an idea of what trees might be under attack in the area or if any invasive beetles are present such as Emerald Ash Borer, the oak splendor beetle, or the goldspotted oak borer. (none of these are known to be in Rhode Island currently!!)

We have multiple locations in Rhode Island with known colonies and many locations that have never been visited due to lack of people-power! If you know people who might be interested in this interesting scientific survey.... please let me know!

The only Safety concern regarding this survey is that these beetles are most active on hot/sunny days.  Volunteers must be able to be outside in these conditions. (Water, sunscreen and hats are essential to complete this survey!)

For more info about this project please visit

http://www.cerceris.info/pdf/esc_bulletin_%20careless&marshall.pdf

Or

www.cerceris.info

We've created this email address [email protected] in order to facilitate volunteers for this survey.  Feel free to forward it to others.  If this is something you could add to your website or put into an email to your tree stewards, that would be great!

--
USDA/APHIS/PPQ
Smoky-Winged Beetle Bandit Survey
 
Laura Hartmann
[email protected]
508-525-5723

Knowing Your Trees ~ September 10 & October 22, 2011

What tree is that? This is a familiar refrain that, unfortunately, has kept too many of us from enjoying a good night's sleep,  a second helping of pasta, or even a delicious double espresso as we ponder the mystery of the leafy specimen we just encountered while on our daily walk.  Well trouble yourself no more.  Thanks to RITree you can learn the plant's identity by attending RITree's "Knowing Your Trees" program- giving you plenty of time for these other delights!  "Knowing Your Trees" is a series of three workshops on the 100 most common shade trees, conifers and plant ornamentals found in Rhode Island.  Participants will learn how to identify these plants from their leaf, bud, fruit and flowering characteristics.  The cost for each workshop is $65.00 per member ($85.00 non-members) includes a workshop manual and lunch.  Only 30 seat are available per workshop, so please register as soon as possible to avoid missing out. 

Common Shade Trees of Rhode Island - Saturday, September 10, 2011  Location: FMM, 399 Fruit Hill Ave, North Providence, R.I.

Common Conifers of Rhode Island- Saturday, October 22, 2011     Location: FMM, 399 Fruit Hill Ave, North Providence, RI  

Common Plant Ornamentals of Rhode Island- February 2012 TBA

Source: RI Tree Council eNewsletter

Memorial Tree Planting ~ June 4, 2011

Honor our troops this year by planting trees with us at the Veterans' Memorial Cemetery on June 4th.   

Attention Tree Stewards, Volunteers and Members of RITree,
 
The Rhode Island Tree Council is planting twenty tuliptrees, Liriodendron tulipifera at the RI Veterans' Memorial Cemetery in Exeter, RI on Saturday, June 4, 2011.
 
The 2 diameter inch saplings will be installed along a section of Main Street from the Memorial Chapel behind the Administration Building to the north entrance gate leading to Route 2.  Main Street is a long, circular road that connects the front to the back of the cemetery.
 
This planting is the first of many whose ultimate goal is to line the entire length of this major cemetery travel lane with tall, wide-spreading trees.  
 
We will not be able to plant these magnificent trees without your help.
 
Anyone interested in helping is asked to contact RITree by Wednesday, June 1st.  We will meet at the parking lot in front of the Administration Building on June 4th around 9:15 AM. The Main Street planting will start promptly at 9:30 AM. 

Memorial Tree Planting ~ June 4, 2011

Memorial Planting
Tree Stewards, Volunteers and Members of RITree,
 
The Rhode Island Tree Council is planting twenty tuliptrees, Liriodendron tulipifera at the RI Veterans' Memorial Cemetery in Exeter, RI on Saturday, June 4, 2011.
 
The 2 diameter inch saplings will be installed along a section of Main Street from the Memorial Chapel behind the Administration Building to the north entrance gate leading to Route 2.  Main Street is a long, circular road that connects the front to the back of the cemetery.
 
This planting is the first of many whose ultimate goal is to line the entire length of this major cemetery travel lane with tall, wide-spreading trees.  
 
We will not be able to plant these magnificent trees without your help.
 
Anyone interested in helping is asked to contact RITree by Wednesday, June 1st.  We will meet at the parking lot in front of the Administration Building on June 4th around 9:15 AM. The Main Street planting will start promptly at 9:30 AM. 

Arbor Day in Rhode Island ~ April 29, 2011

As with Earth Day, one day each year is set aside to celebrate Arbor Day, and that would be today, April 29th, the last Friday in April 2011. But also just like Earth Day, every day is Earth Day and Arbor Day!

All week long, Newport RI has been celebrating the establishment of the first city-wide arboretum in New England. Newport has many magnificent trees that are as worth a tour as the so-called "cottages" along Bellevue Avenue. Still to come is a major tree planting at Ninigret Park in Charlestown, on May 7th. The RI Tree Council, National Grid, and the Narragansett Chapter of the Appalachian Mountain Club are collaborating to plant 100 new trees at this state park.

Here are links to a couple of recent stories and articles regarding Arbor Day in case you haven't planted a tree yet this year and wonder what the fuss over trees is about:

• Froma Harrop: An urgent Arbor Day reminder to honor trees globally ~ Providence Journal, April 27, 2011
• Digging Rhode Island: Hug A Tree: Arbor Day in Rhode Island [URI Master Gardeners' Blog]

And by the way, do you know what the official Rhode Island state tree is? [Hint: The photo to the right can be found from the Arbor Day Foundation Rhode Island page.]

THINGS TO DO FOR THE TREES:

Check out the Arbor Day Foundation's website to learn all about trees in general and for suggestions for giving, planting and nurturing trees. One thing you can do is to check with your town or city hall to find out if you have a municipal forester, tree warden, and tree ordinances. The Arbor Day Foundation's RI page also lists our 11 Tree Cities/Towns. Is your town one of them? Twenty-eight towns and cities are missing!

Rhode Island Tree Council runs a twice-yearly tree steward training program. The next one begins May 3rd, and perhaps there is still room for more folks.

Providence residents can apply for free street trees through the Providence Neighborhood Planting Program. Application for fall planting is coming up in about a month.

RI Department of Environment has an entire division devoted to foresty and trees. Learn a little about where our tax dollars go to care for the forests in Rhode Island. Download and read a copy of the Forests of Rhode Island Report or the RI Forest Resources Management Plan.

Problems with trees on your property? Hire and/or consult with a certified, licensed arborist.

Happy Arbor Day!

Newport Arboretum Week ~ April 22-29, 2011

THE NEWPORT ARBORETUM IS A NEW PROJECT OF THE NEWPORT TREE SOCIETY

Help celebrate the launch of New England's first citywide arboreum.

Visit the Newport Arboretum website to view a full list of events including free guided tree walks, a free children's movie event and many other activities.

Note also that these events are being incorporated into What Grows On in Rhode Island's Earth Day & Arbor Day Calendar.

RI Tree Stewards Education Course ~ May 3 - June 7, 2011

It may be January, but if you want to take the popular tree stewards course from the RI Tree Council in May, it's time to sign up! The course, usually offered each spring and fall, is limited to 30 people and it will fill up!

This is a must take course for either the plant novice or plant professional who wants to learn how to properly plant and care for trees.  Class topics will include planting, pruning, tree identification, soils management, plant health care and tree biology.  The skills workshop will feature the actual execution of planting, pruning and tree inventorying skills learned in the classroom.

The course will be held in North Providence on Tuesday evenings from May 3 to June 7. Registration is $95.00 and includes course manual.  Course size is limited to 30 persons.  Or call the RI Tree Council office at 401-764-5885 to register by phone.  Visa, Master Card and checks accepted.

Funding Available ~ Forest Land Planning ~ Application Deadline April 1, 2011

USDA Initiative Offers Assistance With Forest Land Planning
 
Applications for the New England-New York Forestry Initiative Will be Accepted Through April 1, 2011 for Current Funding
 
WARWICK, RI ~ USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Chief Dave White announced that $250,000 in federal funding is available to assist Rhode Island forest land owners with forest land planning and management under the New England-New York Forestry Initiative.

Sustainable Community Tree Program Grants Workshop ~ February 9, 2011

$30,000 IN MATCHING GRANTS FOR SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITY TREE PROGRAMS AVAILABLE THROUGH DEM

Grant Information Workshop to be Held February 9 at DEM Forestry Headquarters in North Scituate

The Department of Environmental Management’s Division of Forest Environment, in cooperation with the United States Forest Service and the Rhode Island Tree Council, is offering 60/40 matching grants for the establishment or extension of comprehensive community tree programs.  The program is an integral part of the America the Beautiful initiative that focuses on helping communities to develop sustainable forestry programs.

A grant information workshop will be held on Wednesday, February 9 by DEM forestry staff to explain the program and application process.

Eligible applicants include all units of government, non-profit organizations, and recognized community groups.

Projects eligible for grants include inventories of public trees, development of a tree management plan, educational activities and materials leading to a comprehensive tree program, tree planting projects as part of a comprehensive tree management plan, development of a tree ordinance and historic and specimen tree maintenance and inventory.  A total of $30,000 is available for this year’s grant awards.

Grant requests between $2,000 and $4,000 will be considered, equaling 40 percent of a project’s total costs, with the additional 60 percent match provided by the applicant.  DEM has distributed $2.25 million in America the Beautiful grants in the past 19 years under this formula, matched by $3.6 million in local funds.

The February 9 workshop will be held from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Division of Forest Environment headquarters located at 1037 Hartford Pike in North Scituate.  The application deadline for submitting grants is 4 p.m. on Monday, February 28.  Grants will be awarded during Arbor Day ceremonies on April 29.

For additional information and grant applications, contact Peter Lockwood, urban and community forestry coordinator at DEM’s Division of Forest Environment at 647-3367 or via email at [email protected].  The grant application and fact sheet are available on DEM’s website, www.dem.ri.gov, by clicking on “Topics” from the homepage, then “Grants/Financing,” then “America the Beautiful Grant Requests.”

 

News Release
RI Department of Environmental Management
235 Promenade St., Providence, RI 02908
(401) 222-2771   www.dem.ri.gov

Contact:          Gail Mastrati 222-4700 ext. 2402