The City of Fort Worth sent me this fabulous program that they have adopted in 17 counties in North Central Texas to train citizens like you and me to be Urban Foresters…how cool is that???
The email says:
If you are interested in learning more about trees and are willing to volunteer to help care for and maintain the public trees in your town, then Citizen Forester is for you!
The Cross Timbers Urban Forestry Council (CTUFC) is now accepting applications for the Citizen Forester 2007 training class. Participants will receive 36 combined hours of classroom instruction and hands-on field training. Training sessions will be held at various locations in Fort Worth from 9 am to 4pm on the third Wednesday of each month from January 17 through June 20, 2007.
The Citizen Forester program presents a wonderful opportunity for individuals to become skilled at planting, pruning, and maintaining trees in an urban environment. It also provides interested persons with the chance to get involved with local city and county agencies and help their community take care of its public trees.
Topics include identification of recommended native and adapted trees, proper hands-on planting and pruning experience, benefits of trees, recognition of hazardous trees, conducting tree inventories, common insect and disease pests of trees, and other relevant urban forestry topics.
Citizen Forester volunteers are committed to helping their community take care of its public trees. In exchange for their training, Citizen Forester volunteers provide a minimum of 25 hours of community service to their local town, city or county towards projects that involve trees on
public property.
Currently, the 27 Citizen Foresters who completed the 2006 pioneer class in June have already provided over 300 hours of community service.
This group of volunteers is involved with many projects,
including conducting tree inventories of local parks, training and pruning newly established trees on public property, mulching trees in public parks, and assisting with public tree planting programs and tree give-away events.
In partnership with CTUFC, the City of Fort Worth organizes and hosts the training program. Cross Timbers members throughout the Metroplex assist in supervising field training exercises and serving as guest speakers. The training class is limited to 30 participants, with each county in the 17-county Cross Timbers region guaranteed one slot. There is no charge to participants except for out-of-pocket travel and lunch expenses.
The deadline to apply for the program is Friday, December 15, 2006. For more information or to request an application, call 817-871-5739
Serving 17 counties in North Texas, the Cross Timbers Urban Forestry Council (CTUFC) is a non-profit organization charged with the mission to promote programs in the region to increase interest in urban and community forestry.
The CTUFC, www.ctufc.org, began the Citizen Forester program in 2006 with the help of a matching partnership grant from
the Texas Forest Service. The Citizen Forester program is open to any interested adult within this 17 county region in North Texas, including Tarrant, Denton, Cooke, Montague, Clay, Wichita, Archer, Young, Stephens, Palo Pinto, Erath, Somervell, Hood, Parker, Jack, Wise and Johnson counties.
Contact Info:
Melanie Migura, Forester
Parks and Community Services
City of Fort Worth
4200 South Freeway, Suite 2200
Fort Worth, TX 76115-1499
Ph: 817-871-5739
FAX: 817-871-5724
If you don’t live in North Central Texas check to see if there is a program like this near you. Planting more trees is one way to save our planet!