Edmond fared well in recent competition for federal money to improve its tree programs.
The City of Edmond will receive two $10,000 grants for two separate programs while a committee of the Edmond Neighborhood Alliance also received a $3,000 grant.
The grants are from the U.S. Forest Service/Oklahoma Forestry Services Urban and Community Forestry Program, which are awarded annually on a competitive basis, according to an Oklahoma Department of Agriculture Forestry Services press release.
The City of Edmond and ENA were two of about 20 applicants who qualified for a portion of $255,000 in federal funding available this year.
“The Oklahoma Urban and Community Forestry Program’s goal is to provide essential resources to communities that will enable them to better care for trees on public lands,” stated Terry Peach, Oklahoma Secretary of Agriculture. “By participating in this urban forestry grant program, our communities demonstrate their vision for the future. Their projects place them in a position to improve their overall quality of life while adding to Oklahoma’s economy.”
Carrie Tomlinson, Edmond’s urban forester, said the city will utilize one $10,000 grant to complete the second half of its Sensitive Areas Study. The first half was completed this year from another $10,000 grant the city received in last year’s competitive process. That first half studied the eastern portion of Edmond up to Bryant Avenue surveying for remnant forest areas — trees that may still be here that have survived 100 years or more from the original Cross Timbers Forest in Edmond.
This new $10,000 will fund a similar survey of the western portion of Edmond so that the city will have a complete picture of its existing forest to help officials in planning and preservation efforts, Tomlinson said.
The second $10,000 grant awarded the city this year will pay for an urban forestry intern to help the city accomplish several new tree-related programs. Tomlinson said an intern will be hired to help start the Legacy Tree Program, develop a tree tour guide that will help people find fully grown examples of various tree species that grow well in Edmond and help start the Heritage Tree Directory, a project that intends to create a database of historic and “witness trees.” Witness trees were trees that were here during original surveys of Edmond and had small metal plates attached to identify them as survey markers, she said.
“We’ve got lots and lots of great projects going on,” Tomlinson said.
Meanwhile, the Cross Timbers Tree Preservation Committee, a subgroup of the ENA, plans to use its third $3,000 grant to start some demonstration projects in which the group will help Boy and Girl scout groups learn about trees as well as help maintain the Millennium Forest next to the Edmond Area Chamber of Commerce, said Dan O’Neil, a committee member.
“There’s a wide variety of trees there,” O’Neil said. “It’s an example of how preservation can improve your landscape requirements. It sort of shows the diversity of the Cross Timbers.”
This committee primarily has worked toward preserving trees in the Interstate 35 Corridor and has tried to develop educational materials and resources for developers to help them learn how to preserve existing trees on property about to be developed.
The grant also will help fund the group’s Okie Acorn Roundup in the fall, which has kids gathering acorns. The group then helps the youth winterize the acorns and then plant them to help educate how trees can spring from acorns. O’Neil said another goal is to try to grow some of the species native to the Cross Timbers forest area through this program, as many of them are not regularly available at nurseries for planting.
Tomlinson said Edmond has been fortunate to have received grants for this type of work during the last six years.
“This shows that Edmond is progressing in its urban forest work,” she said. “It was a very impressive showing for Edmond — it shows that we care about our forest.”
(Lisa Shearer may be reached via e-mail at lshearer@edmondsun.com.)
