The TREE Fund Report>
|
Click on the link for a PDF copy of past newsletters: |
TREE Fund, Partners Aim High with
MillionTreesNYC Training Program
The goal of New York City’s MillionTreesNYC project is ambitious: plant and care for a million new trees within the city’s 5 boroughs in 10 years. In October 2009 NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg and New York Restoration Project founder Bette Midler officially planted tree #250,000. That’s a lot of trees, and it begs the question: who’s going to care for them all?
Just a year ago the TREE Fund was approached by MillionTreesNYC to facilitate an arboriculture training program for underemployed young adults in NYC. The TREE Fund enlisted Asplundh Tree Expert Co., Bartlett Tree Experts, The Davey Tree Expert Company and STIHL Inc. to provide job skills training to young arboriculture trainees as part of the MillionTreesNYC Training Program. The arboriculture training program has since “graduated” two classes of 11 students each, mostly inner-city residents with their roots in asphalt, not arboriculture. The program’s goal is to provide participants with two key components to a career path: job skills and contacts. Many will go to work for the city’s Parks Department, but the consensus among the trainers from the tree-care companies was that these trainees would be employable anywhere in the industry.
“What’s really been great is that we’re all working together to provide practical arborist training and promote safety,” said TREE Fund President and Bartlett VP David McMaster. “It’s been a truly cooperative effort between Asplundh, Bartlett, Davey and STIHL, with great support from the New York City Parks folks.” McMaster and fellow TREE Fund Trustee Matthew Wells of NYC Parks and Recreation were instrumental in crafting this public/ private partnership, which generated over 560 man-hours of free training for MillionTreesNYC Training Program participants. The New York Times covered the final tree-climbing techniques class in its print and online editions, adding to the luster of an already sunny February day. But the real payoff could be seen in the eyes of the newly graduated trainees, for whom “a million trees” means a lifetime of opportunities. (Read more about this program ) - § - |
The arboriculture trainees received 2 full weeks of hands-on instruction from some of the best trainers in the industry. Topics included chain saw operation, tree felling, limbing and bucking, tree biology, identification, selection, and planting practices, principles of Plant Health Care, pest and disease identification and hazard evaluation techniques. In addition, arboriculture trainees enrolled in the second week of climbing training were treated to a day spent in the trees of Bronx Park, honing their skills with champion climber Mark Chisholm. 