students in the urban forest

Students in the Urban Forest

Elise SchadlerVT Urban & Community Forestry

Partners in Community Forestry ConferenceNovember 2014

Vermont Urban & Community Forestry Program

The Vermont Context

• 4 communities with paid Arborist on staff• Few communities with explicit tree budgets• Urban and community forest stewardship efforts largely grassroots

Project Class Community Number of students

Burlington Urban Forest i-Tree Eco – long term monitoring NR 1: Natural History & Field Ecology Burlington 200

Village Green Tree Inventory and mapping, round I NR 206: Environmental Problem-Solving

New Haven, Waterbury, Jericho, Burlington, Middlebury, Bristol,

Williston, Vergennes 2

TreeAGE project - Community Tree Nursery tree mapping NR 206: Environmental Problem-Solving South Burlington 2

Branch Out Burlington Tree Walk: NR 25: Measurements & Mapping Burlington 4

Ash inventories NR 25: Measurements & Mapping Enosburg, Essex, Richford 8

Inventory of UVM's Green, including i-Tree assessment HCOL 186: Trees & Culture Burlington 20

Ash Tree Tagging in Burlington: raising awareness about emerald ash borer

NR 285: Community-based Natural Resource Management Burlington 28

Village Greens ethnography project - interview people using greens

NR 285: Community-based Natural Resource Management Barre 2

Village Greens landscape architecture drawings of 8 greens PSS 166: Landscape Design Fundamentals

New Haven, Waterbury, Jericho, Burlington, Middlebury, Bristol,

Williston, Vergennes 25

Village Greens landscape design recommendations for Fair Haven PRT 138: Park & Recreation Design Fair Haven 12

GIS: Ranking towns for need and capacity of a public tree inventory: prep for summer 2014 tree inventory work NR 243: GIS Practicum Statewide 1

GIS: UVM canopy cover estimation and UVM Green tree mapping NR 243: GIS Practicum Burlington 1

Land Stewardship (LANDS) Program & VT UCF Inventories• Summer 2013, Summer 2014, Fall 2014• 13 field days• 6 community tree inventories• 4,000 + trees inventoried• 600 + potential tree planting locations

Why Does it Matter?

• Increases our capacity to fulfill our mission

• Enhances urban and community forest stewardship in VT

• Exposes young environmental leaders to the field

What we’ve learned

• Planning

• Adaptability

• Feedback

What we’ve learned

• Attainable objectives

• Faculty relationships

• Student autonomy

• Connection to place

The Future

www.vtcommunityforestry.org

Elise.Schadler@uvm.edu