2015 Annual Report

Leading Colorado’s efforts to preserve, renew, and enhance community forests

Table of Contents SPOTLIGHT ON THE PRESIDENT ..................................................................................... 3

CTC LEADERSHIP .............................................................................................................. 5

COLORADO TREE COALITION BOARD OF DIRECTORS .................................................................................................. 5 COLORADO TREE COALITION COMMITTEES ................................................................................................................ 6

CTC PROGRAMS ............................................................................................................................. 9

FRONT RANGE URBAN FORESTRY COUNCIL ....................................................................................................................... 9 2015Tour de Poudre Bike Ride ........................................................................................................................... 10 CHAMPION TREE PROGRAM .................................................................................................................................... 11 THE CTC TREE FINDER APP ................................................................................................................................................ 11

$500 Reward: Bring Home the Blue ............................................................................................................................. 12 NOTABLE TREE PROGRAM ...................................................................................................................................... 12 SELECT TREE EVALUATION PROGRAM (STEP) ......................................................................................................... 12 TREES ACROSS COLORADO .................................................................................................................................... 13 COLORADO ARBOR DAY FOUNDATION POSTER CONTEST ......................................................................................... 14 SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM ........................................................................................................................................ 14

SCHOLARSHIP SUCCESS STORIES ......................................................................................................................... 15 CO-TREEVIEW – COLORADO’S COMMUNITY TREE MAP ............................................................................................. 18 TREE RISK ASSESSMENT PROGRAM .................................................................................................................................... 20 CTC PROGRAM CONTACTS..................................................................................................................................... 20

2015 CTC GRANT PROGRAM ......................................................................................... 22

AWARDS SUMMARY ................................................................................................................................................ 22 GRANT RECIPIENT HIGHLIGHTS –THE ALAMOSA DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION ......................................... 23 GRANT RECIPIENT HIGHLIGHTS –EL PASO COUNTY ................................................................................................... 24 GRANT RECIPIENT HIGHLIGHTS –THE INSTITUTE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL SOLUTIONS .................................................... 24 GRANT RECIPIENT HIGHLIGHTS – THE TOWN OF MANCOS .......................................................................................... 25 GRANT RECIPIENT HIGHLIGHTS – PROJECTLEARNINGTREE ................................................................................................................. 25 GRANT RECIPIENT HIGHLIGHTS – ROCKYFORDTREEBOARD ................................................................................................................ 26

EVENTS AND OUTREACH ............................................................................................... 27

EASTERN COLORADO COMMUNITY FORESTRY CONFERENCE .................................................................................... 27 WESTERN COLORADO COMMUNITY FORESTRY CONFERENCE ................................................................................... 27 PROGREEN, WORKSHOPS, AND OTHER EVENTS ...................................................................................................... 28 CSFS COMMUNITY FORESTRY, CTC CELEBRATE ANNIVERSARIES ..................................................................... 28 TIMELINE OF NOTABLE EVENTS. .......................................................................................................................... 28 CTC RELEASES 25TH ANNIVERESARY CALENDAR .......................................................................................................... 36

FINANCIALS ......................................................................................................................... 37 COLORADO TREE COALITION 2015 TREASURER'S REPORT SUBMITTED BY BECKY WEGNER............................................ 37 COLORADO TREE COALITION 2015 STATEMENT OF ACTIVITIES JANUARY 1, 2015 THROUGH DECEMBER 31, 2015 ........ 38

PARTNERSHIPS ................................................................................................................................. 40

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Spotlight on the President

President’s Message Mike McGill, CTC President

It was a big year for the Colorado Tree Coalition as the organization celebrated its 25th anniversary. As I reflect upon the last year, I truly believe that three pillars have made us thrive as an organization: People, Partnerships, and Programs.

Members are the lifeblood of this organization and their dedication, commitment, and passion are the foundation of what truly makes us successful as an organization. These people are the driving force of our programs and are responsible for fostering new relationships that bring new partners to the table. These partnerships allow CTC to leverage funds and enable us to increase visibility and exposure of CTC programs throughout the state. Some key partners in 2015 included Xcel Energy, ISA-RMC, CSFS, USFS, Colorado Public Radio, as well as countless others.

The CTC is committed to delivering quality, volunteer led community education & outreach programs. Our program committee members turned out some great results this year. Some program highlights for the year included producing a commemorative edition calendar to celebrate the CTC’s 25th anniversary; awarding grants totaling nearly $50,000 to 17 organizations; unveiling the CO-TreeView community tree mapping website; awarding a ReForest Colorado grant to Canon City to aid damage caused by fire; developing an Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) ash tree replacement tool; partnering with ISA-RMC to host the Plant Health Care Workshop; and supplying 875 trees to 9 groups/communities through Trees Across Colorado.

I appreciate all of the overwhelming support that the Board of Directors has given me this year, especially while stumbling through leading my first Board meeting. If it weren’t for their well-timed prompts, along with my “Robert’s rules of order” (procedures for conducting meetings) cheat sheets, I would have never been able to successfully navigate through this endeavor. For the record, after a year at the helm, I still look upon my cheat sheets from time to time.

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Moving forward, my goal is to support and build upon the strengths that have made the organization effective. We will be updating our Strategic Plan early in 2016 to guide us for the next five years. Our goal is to produce a condensed and streamlined plan that will keep the organization as a leading advocate and trusted source for community forestry in Colorado. I am excited to inform that the CTC has entered into a new agreement to bring Karen Duez on-board as administrative support to help advance our program goals in 2016. She is a welcomed asset and I look forward to working with her.

I would also like to put out a call for action for members to join me and to get involved in lending their individual talents to help shape the CTC for the future. Member participation is key to re-invigorating old or existing programs and proposing new programs. Please consider volunteering and serving as a program committee member or chairperson, Front Range Urban Forestry Council (FRUFC) representative, or member of our Board of Directors.

A special thanks to all of our members, partners, and program committee members for your dedication to making 2015 a great year!

CTC Leadership Colorado Tree Coalition Board of Directors The accomplishments of the Colorado Tree Coalition are due to the help and support of the Board of Directors and the hard-working program and committee members.

The Board of Directors is the managing group of the organization. It is comprised of chapter members, invited representation from tree related organizations, and the immediate past president. The CTC’s current board structure follows:

Colorado Tree Coalition – Board of Directors

North Chapter Representative Wendy Ball

Northwest Chapter Representative David Hoefer

Front Range Urban Forestry Council

(Front Range Representatives)

Kyle Sylvester

Caleb Palmer

Laurel Brabec**

Chuck Gehringer

Josh Theobald**

Nancy Biekarck**

Executive CTC Administrator Keith Wood**

American Forests / Champion Trees Neal Bamesberger**

Colorado State Forest Service Representative

Vince Urbina

Community Development Representative Karen Scopel

Industry Liaison Representative (Tree Company) Becky Wegner**

Industry Liaison Representative (Wood Utilization)

Dan Odell

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International Society of Arboriculture Rep. Mike McGill**

Society of American Foresters Representative

Phil Hoefer

Trees Across Colorado Representative Gertie Grant

ASLA Representative David Flaig**

ASCA Representative Scott Grimes

CTC Historian Phil Hoefer

**Executive Committee

Colorado Tree Coalition Committees Executive Committee

Overview: The Executive Committee is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Colorado Tree Coalition and is selected by and from the Board of Directors.

Executive Committee

2015 Officers Member Name Committee Position

Mike McGill mmcgill@erieco.gov President

Scott Grimes Vice President Nancy Biekarck Secretary Becky Wegner Treasurer David Flaig Past president Josh Theobald At-Large Neal Bamesberger At-Large Keith Wood Executive Administrator

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Executive Committee 2016 Officers

Member Name Committee Position Mike McGill mmcgill@erieco.gov President

Josh Theobald Vice President Nancy Biekarck Secretary Becky Wegner Treasurer David Flaig Past president Laurel Brabec At-Large Neal Bamesberger At-Large Keith Wood Executive Administrator

Board Development Committee

Overview: Continue the task of building and maintaining a diverse board of directors as a regular assessment; to analyze and revise chapter representation; to begin to develop a job description for a paid Executive Director; and conduct succession planning for replacement board members/committee members/etc.

Members: Mike McGill mmcgill@erieco.gov – Town of Erie Becky Wegner – Mountain High Tree Service Keith Wood – Colorado State Forest Service

Marketing and Outreach Committee

Overview: Determine the needs of committees/programs to market their activities. Telling the CTCstory, getting branded, and getting the CTC “out there.”

Members: Mike McGill mmcgill@erieco.gov – Town of Erie Gertie Grant – Trees Across Colorado Keith Wood – Colorado State Forest Service Tom Wells – City and County of Broomfield Vince Urbina – Colorado State Forest Service Dan Odell – TC Woods

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Funding Committee

Overview: Create funding database to track potential sponsors; attract and maintain membership base.

Members: Scott Grimes – coloradotreeconsultants@yahoo.com - Colorado Tree Consultants Karen Scopel – City of Greeley Keith Wood – Colorado State Forest Service Neal Bamesberger – Koon Landscape and Design Vince Urbina – Colorado State Forest Service

CTC Programs Front Range Urban Forestry Council

The Front Range Urban Forestry Council (FRUFC), an active chapter of the Colorado Tree Coalition (CTC), held meetings and programs in 2015. Attendees at meetings this year included state and municipal forestry employees, agency, independent and non-profit representatives, Parks and Recreation District staff, tree company staff, landscape architects, wood-workers, and interested public. Meetings included committee update information on insects and diseases, tree risk assessment information, select tree evaluations, and partnership updates with the U.S. Forest Service, CTC, the Mile High Million Tree Planting Initiative, and the International Society of Arboriculture-Rocky Mountain Chapter. Organization representatives in attendance were also encouraged to give updates on community forestry-related activities going on in their communities at each meeting.

The first meeting of the year was held in Broomfield on January 22nd. Information was presented by Plan-It Geo on the new statewide tree inventory map at www.cotreeview.com. Several communities present at the meeting uploaded their inventories during the unveiling of this new tool for Colorado urban forest managers.

On March 19th the group met in Littleton to hear a presentation by Angela Poulson, CSFS Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) Coordinator, on community survey results regarding EAB. The group also discussed what they were seeing regarding tree damage from the early November 2014 polar vortex.

On May 21st the University of Colorado-Boulder’s East Campus hosted a tree appraisal workshop. Attendees learned the myriad of uses of the Council of Tree and Landscape Appraisers (CTLA) formulas. Appraisal methods and examples being used from the communities to the consultants were highlighted. Both indoor and outdoor sessions focused on various issues and methods of tree appraisals in the Rocky Mountain region.

The July 16th meeting was held at the beautiful Xilinx Summit Retreat Center in Longmont. A panel discussion of favorite tree selections by foresters from various Front Range communities highlighted the program, with a small group forming to look into bulk orders and contract growing options for the future.

The next and last meeting of the year was held in Fort Collins on September 17th. Staff from the City of Aspen presented information on their tree risk assessment program and demonstrated the use of tomography as an assessment tool.

All in all it was another good year of meetings and programs for the Front Range Urban Forestry Council and the group looks forward to visiting 6 new sites in 2016 with a new array of programs and presenters!

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2015 Tour de Poudre Bike Ride Even after having to postpone the ride from June to October due to a flooded trail, the 16th annual CTC Bike ride ‘Tour de Poudre’ was a wonderful success! We had 27 riders pedal nearly 1,200 miles and raise over $ 2,600 on a fine morning October 4, 2015. Twelve riders went from Swingle Tree in Fort Collins to Rover Run Dog Park in Greeley and back while 15 folks rode to Eastman Park in Windsor and back to Fort Collins.

Thanks to donations, and our host sponsor Swingle Tree, a light breakfast, lunch and trail snacks kept the riders and volunteers nourished and refreshed. Little Valley Nursery, Phelan Gardens and KRG Capital Partners provided additional cash donations to help cover expenses. Root Tree Service donated event t-shirts and once again, donations covered all the expenses and the riders’ registration fees will all go towards community forestry.

The support team included CTC Board members Nancy Biekarck and her son Matt, as well as Alison O’Connor, Ken Kawamura, Eric Dixon, Danielle Grimes and Susan Hardin. These folks really made a great impression on the riders with their encouragement, smiles and the award winning banana bread Alison provided in Windsor. Without the many volunteer hours these folks give we would not have this great fundraising ride. Thanks to all of you!

We’re already talking about the 17th annual CTC ride and want to hear from anyone with ideas on improving upon this year’s success or wanting to help or ride with us. See you nextyear.

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Champion Tree Program: The ‘Blue comes Home’ This has been one of the most exciting years of the champion tree program in Colorado. For over 10 years the Colorado Tree Coalition has issued a challenge to find a Blue Spruce large enough to become the new national champion. Well this year it happened, not only once but twice!!! Last year after the tree measuring workshop in Durango a spruce was found that was a point short of qualifying for national champ status. This year it was re-measured as well as the current champ in Utah, and both were found to be tied, that is, within 5 points of each other.

After this year’s workshop sponsored by the Western Native Tree Society (WNTS) and the Colorado State Forest Service, one of the attendees stayed over and found another spruce that is tied with the other two. Each spruce is close to 4’ in diameter, one is 166’, the other 180’ tall. The $500 rewards were issued to Will Blozan from North Carolina and Matt Markworth from Ohio, who first found these champs. Our thanks also go to the other members of the Eastern Native Tree Society (ENTS) and WNTS who helped document these huge spruces. They were found North of Durango in the Hermosa Creek area. This is also the area of the state in which are found the state champion Douglas-fir, Southwestern White Pine and Ponderosa Pine as well.

Twice yearly American Forests issues their National Register of Big Trees to foster an interest in and appreciation of the largest and most significant trees in the country. Since 1940, the National Big Tree Program has been a testament to American Forests’ legacy of leadership in recognizing the beauty and critical ecosystem benefits provided by our biggest and oldest trees, there are more than 750 documented champions. American Forests is the nation’s oldest conservation nonprofit established in 1875.

The Colorado Tree Coalition (CTC) is a volunteer organization that was established in 1991 as a result of the Community Forestry Assistance Act. From modest beginnings as a group of metro foresters started in 1985 we have grown into a statewide nonprofit organization whose mission is “leading statewide efforts to preserve, renew, and enhance communityforests”. Among the many programs of the CTC is the Champion Tree Program. A list of the largest species of trees is updated each year to reflect new nominations from citizens, public and private entities.

The CTC

Tree Finder App

Many notable and champion tree

locations in Colorado are now accessible on your smart phone. You can download the

app for free by going to the

Google Play store for android, or the Apple app store for iPhone. Just

type in "CTC tree finder" or "CTC treefinder" (with no spaces) and download it for

free.

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$500 Reward: Bring Home the Blue

The Colorado Tree Coalition is offering a $500 reward to the individual responsible for “Bringing Home the Blue”. This fantastic reward is available to whoever finds a large enough Colorado Blue Spruce (Picea pungens) to dethrone the current co-champs in Colorado and Utah. Colorado is certainly capable of growing the largest blue spruce in the nation and it’s likely growing here and just waiting for some “big tree hunter” to find it and claim the prize. Get your boots on, your tape measure and camera in hand and go out there and “Bring Home the Blue”, you could claim the $500 reward!

Notable Tree Program A notable tree is one that is remarkable or distinguishable in some way, or related to a famous or historical person, place, or event. A tree may also be notable if the surrounding community accepts it as being special based upon its species, uniqueness, or contribution to the community. Many of the trees in Notable Tree tours are notable because they are among the largest of their species in Colorado and are called Champion Trees.

The following Notable Tree Tours are available in pdf format at http://www.coloradotrees.org/programs.php#notable:

• Boulder

• Colorado Springs

• Fort Collins

Select Tree Evaluation Program (STEP) The Select Tree Evaluation Program was established in 2001 with the goal of increasing the overall diversity of Colorado’s urban forests. Each year, a potential tree species that has not been widely planted in Colorado is selected for planting in local communities to evaluate its potential suitability for broader planting in the state. The program aims to further diversify the list of species communities have available to choose from when planting, making it easier to plant diversely.

The Choice City David Elm (Ulmus davidiana ‘Choice City’) was selected as the evaluation species for 2015. The communities of Boulder, Longmont, Lakewood and Greeley became the new homes for 12 ‘Choice City’ elms (three in each community).

In past years, STEP has evaluated the following trees:

2001: Chinquapin Oak, White Spruce, and Shumard Oak

2002: Frontier Elm

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2003: Lacebark Pine 2004: Burgundy Ussurian Pear

2006: Canyon Maple

2010: Pacific Sunset Maple

2011: Sensation Boxelder

2012: Wavy leaf Oak

2013: Expresso Coffeetree 2014: Purple Beech ‘Dawyck Purple’

2015: David Elm ‘Choice City’

Diverse planting helps to protect Colorado’s community forests from the impact of insects and disease. The Colorado State Forest Service recommends that no one type of tree should make up more than 10 percent of a planted landscape. For a list of recommended tree species, visit http://www.coloradotrees.org.

Trees Across Colorado Trees Across Colorado (TAC), a program of The Colorado Tree Coalition, provided shade trees for the fourteenth year to communities to involve volunteers in tree planting this past April. Communities that participate in TAC have the opportunity for outreach with information about the benefits of trees, good species selection and proper tree planting andmaintenance practices.

This year nine communities came to Windsor, Arvada and Littleton to get 872 shade trees on Tuesday April 14th, including bare root, balled and burlaped and trees grown in #7 and #15 patented containers that air prune the roots. These trees with air-pruned roots have such a dense root ball that they don’t fall apart when removed from thecontainers.

Many of the trees distributed through this program are low water-demand and, at 5-12 feet tall and 1 to 1.5 inches in caliper, are a good size for volunteers to plant. Low water demand trees offered this year included ‘Hot Wings’ Tatarian maple, hackberry, Kentucky coffeetree, swamp white oak, bur oak, Goldenraintree and Turkish filbert. Less common trees included bigtooth maple, Shumard oak, chinkapin oak and ginkgo. Organizers included city arborists, Tree Boards, and neighborhood organizations.

Trees Across Colorado continues to be a successful program in distributing low cost, high quality trees to communities and groups all over Colorado. It has been a successful fundraiser for CTC to support scholarships, grants for tree projects across Colorado and educational projects, bringing in almost $11,000 in 2015, thanks to volunteer time contributed to the CTC!

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For information about the Trees Across Colorado program, please call CTC’s Trees Across Colorado Coordinator Gertie Grant at 303-744-3882 or email her atgertiegrant@estreet.net.

Colorado Arbor Day Foundation Poster Contest Nick Babiak Wins 2015 CTC Poster Contest

This year’s poster theme was “Celebrate Trees in Our Community.” Colorado fifth graders from across the state participated, with 43 schools submitting winning posters for the statewide judging event. Following multiple rounds of judging of many other excellent posters, the Colorado Tree Coalition selected Nick’s poster as the statewide winner of the 2015 Colorado Arbor Day Poster Contest! Nick is from Steck Elementary in Denver. The posters of all 43 school winners were displayed on the first floor of the Colorado State Capitol from April 24th through April 30th and Nick was recognized at an event at the Capitol on April 27th.

Scholarship Program The Colorado Tree Coalition (CTC) provides scholarships to eligible members of the CTC to promote its mission of preserving, renewing and enhancing community forests.

The Colorado Tree Coalition (CTC) has a limited amount of funds to assist people with registering to attend conferences and workshops throughout the year. Because of the limited dollars available it is required of all who request assistance to follow these guidelines:

1. Must be an individual, family or patron CTC member in good standing. Memberships available at http://www.coloradotrees.org/ctc_store.php.

2. Scholarship requests will be limited to a maximum of $300, and can only be applied to cover registration costs of the event.

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3. To request a scholarship submit the form on the CTC website http://www.coloradotrees.org/programs.php#awards. At a minimum the request should contain the name and location of the conference and what is hoped to be learned at the event, how it will be applied in your current position, and how it benefits the mission of the CTC.

4. Requests will also be limited to one person per community/group/organization per workshop or conference. Many workshops and conferences now offer concurrent sessions and there is a value to sending more than one person. However, the CTC will not be able to fund more than one person.

5. Scholarship requests will be reviewed and approved by a majority vote of the Executive Committee of CTC.

6. Those receiving scholarships will be required to supply an article or notes to be used in Tree Talk and/or placed on the CTC web site and/or in another electronic newsletter format so others can benefit from the workshop as well.

The board of the CTC is committed to education and is seeking additional funds so the scholarship program can be expanded and more people throughout Colorado can benefit from the various educational opportunities available.

Scholarship Success Stories Respectfully Submitted by: Dennis Will, Certified Forester/ Certified Arborist, Staff Forester City of Colorado Springs Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services on October 5, 2015

I attended the ISA’s 2015 Rocky Mtn. Chapter’s Annual Conference in Keystone on September 24th and 25th where the Colorado Tree Coalition was a significant sponsor. I’ve attended many conferences over the years in the process of maintaining my certifications and I have to say that this year’s lineup was one of the best in a long while. What I’d like to present to you is a few of the sterling pieces of information that I gleaned from several of the speakers.

Dan West is the State entomologist for the Colorado State Forest Service and he made some interesting comments while discussing his topic of emerging pests for the State of Colorado.

Although not emerging, he briefly discussed EAB and its presence in Boulder. West commented “forget about the natural movement” of EAB through the urban canopy because it’s presumed that the entire city of Boulder is infested. In addition, he thinks that Boulder should get away from energy and monies spent in detection surveys and move towards management. He believes that insecticidal protection applications should be a closed system via tree injections and not through soil drenches. Which makes sense to me because the opportunity to over apply drenches on private properties could easily surpass the per acre restriction for imidacloprid. He suggests treating 25% of Boulder’s public trees per year which computes to about 6,000 trees.

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This is compelling information. At last year’s conference during an EAB presentation I noted that a speaker suggested that injection treatment costs would be about $7-15 per inch of tree and would last approximately 2 years. Conversely, removal costs would average $20-45 per inch of tree; a very large difference. The City of Colorado Springs’ street tree canopy is approximately 18% ash, some 30,000 trees. Consequently, our resource protection obligation is astonishing. For example, an average of 10” DBH X $10 per treatment X 30,000 trees is $3 million; removal costs of 10” DBH X $35 per removal X 30,000 trees is $10.5 million. Both costs are insurmountable.

West also presented an updated USA wide map of the new counties infested with EAB in 2015. For more information about the spread of this ecosystem/ budget wrecking inset see the link at: https://www.aphis.usda.gov/plant_health/plant_pest_info/emerald_ash_b/downloads/NewCoun tyDetectionMap2015.pdf

He also discussed an emerging insect of concern that comes to us from Vietnam or Taiwan via California. The polyphagous (multiple tree) shot hole borer is an ambrosia beetle less than a tenth of an inch long. It’s so new on the scene that it is as yet unnamed within thegenus. Similar in shape to a typical ips beetle, its head is tucked under and faces downward. Like all ambrosia beetles it carries a symbiotic fusarium fungus (also unnamed) which it carries within its mycangium. Unlike ips, it feeds on the fungus, not the host tree; it only inoculates the tree to have a place for the fungus to grow. Polyphagous has over 200 host trees in California. It enjoys over 50 in Colorado including oak, maple, box elder and platanus. More importantly, its preferred host tree is the agriculturally important peach on the westslope.

There are multiple generations per year and can carry 3 different, wilt-causing fusarium. The males are flightless and mate with their siblings within the egg laying gallery. Over 80% of the brood can be females. As adults they emerge, fly to the next host tree, bore in, create a gallery and deposit fungi that begin to grow inside the vascular system. She quickly lays eggs; they hatch, feed on the fungi and rapidly move to adulthood. This process takes as little as 40 days!

Signs and symptoms are a dry or wet, oily stained entrance wounds leading to discolored wood, leaf discoloration and wilting, and dieback of entire branches. Look for “toothpicking” frass at entrance wounds and perfectly round, very small exit holes. Trees succumb to the fusarium wilt with 1-3 years.

According to speaker Desmond Clark, the net worth of all the entire planet’s urban trees is a staggering $4.1 trillion dispersed over 138 million acres and 4.9 billion trees. He rightly suggests that trees should be considered infrastructure, much the same way that curb and gutter, streets and bridges are publically owned infrastructure. What is your community’s urban forest worth? The specific knowledge may be helpful when pursuing budget monies from a stingy City Council. In 2013, Bryn Iten with City Forestry calculated, via a 3% sample using i- tree, that the City of Colorado Springs’ forest works out this way; approximately 220,000 street, median and park trees worth $828.2K; nearly a billion dollars! We used this information as

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ammunition in a successful budget request for increased seasonal staff to respond to citizen requests about city owned street trees. Don’t ever let anyone tell you “it’s justtrees…”.

In closing, there were many other slices of knowledge from all the other talented speakers that are too numerous to itemize in this article. Suffice to say that if you haven’t been to a CTC sponsored program then you, or your staff, have been missing out. You never know when that “aha” moment will occur that will help with a budget, identify an unknown or meet someone that’s figured out a problem you’ve been struggling with.

Respectfully Submitted by: Angela Poulson on November 4, 2015 CTC Executive Committee:

Thank you again for sponsoring my attendance to the GIS in the Rockies 2015 conference in late September. Your sponsorship allowed me attend the conference and to co-present with Plan-It Geo’s Ian Hanou on Colorado’s new online community tree map, CO-TreeView. The presentation I delivered was impactful, and my additional involvement in a “GIS Colorado” forum that day ensured that the urban forestry industry’s interests were wellrepresented.

The presentation I delivered with Ian Hanou was well-attended, with most of the room filled, and several interested audience members asked questions at the conclusion of the talk. By presenting CO-TreeView as a first-of-its-kind statewide tree mapping application and by showcasing CO-TreeView’s most useful features, Ian and I were able to position Plan-It Geo and the Colorado Tree Coalition as a collaboration between groups of intelligent and motivated innovators who understand the utility of GIS software in urban forestry applications. We were also able to increase awareness of CO-TreeView’s many possible uses, encouraging increased use of the software.

My involvement with the Q&A/panel session with GIS Colorado was also a worthwhile time investment. During the Q&A session, I contributed my thoughts on the potential of GIS in forestry applications and contributed information about what I perceive are some of the challenges of increasing GIS use in the industry, such as the obstacle of slower-than-average technology adoption. I also suggested strategies for combating this challenge, including the de-mystification of the technology through education and the inspiration of potential users through the sharing of past GIS user success stories.

Additionally, through my interactions with conference presenters and attendees, I represented the needs of the urban forestry industry and made suggestions for how GIS-savvy researchers and technology providers can best serve urban forestry’s needs. I enjoyed the conference and believe my attendance there was beneficial to multiple parties. I appreciate having had the opportunity to attend!

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CO-TreeView is a web-based tree inventory and mapping tool used by Colorado foresters and arborists to record and visualize the location, species, and condition of the trees that make up Colorado’s urban forests. This user- friendly tool, which allows users to view tree and planting site data at a variety of scales, enables proactive, data- driven forest management planning, grant solicitation, and public outreach in support of the conservation and enhancement of the state’s community forests. With CO-TreeView, users can search and sort by tree species, size, condition, and other characteristics. Registered users can quickly and easily add tree inventory information and create customized, downloadable charts and maps. While designed for utility in a broad range of applications, the CO-TreeView tool was created in response to the discovery of emerald ash borer (EAB) in Boulder in late 2013. The Colorado Tree Coalition, which funded the development of the tool, recognized the potential value in having a statewide system to house, aggregate, and display tree inventory data from diverse sources, encouraging Colorado communities to work together to build and protect urban forests. Get answers to CO-TreeView frequently asked questions on the back of thissheet.

Get Started with COTreeView.com

About CO-TreeView, Colorado’s Community Tree Map

Register today to easily add tree inventory information and create customized, downloadable charts and maps. Visit CO- TreeView and click “Create Account” to sign up.

From the registration page, use the “New Account Set-up Quick Start Guide.”

For help using CO-TreeView's inventory upload and tree mapping tools, click the "Help and Tutorials" link.

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Why inventory urban trees? Urban tree inventories provide critical information needed by foresters, arborists, neighborhood associations, and other entities for the proactive management of urban forests. A detailed urban tree inventory can help to quantify the benefits provided by existing trees and identify areas in need of conservation or additional planting. These insights are the foundation for successful forest management planning; they can also be used to demonstrate the need for additional forest management resources, a critical element of grant solicitation.

What is emerald ash borer (EAB)? The emerald ash borer (EAB), Agrilus planipennis, is an exotic insect responsible for the death or decline of tens of millions of ash trees in more than 20 U.S. states and Canada. Native to Asia, the beetle most likely arrived in the U.S. in the 1990s, hidden in wood-packing materials commonly used for shipping. EAB has already cost communities billions of dollars to treat, remove, and replace ash trees. EAB was first detected in Colorado in September 2013 in the City of Boulder. It poses a serious threatto Colorado’s urban forests, where ash trees comprise an estimated 15 to 20 percent oftrees.

What is Tree Plotter? Tree Plotter is the framework upon which CO-TreeView was built. Plan-It Geo, the geospatial technology firm that created Tree Plotter and CO-TreeView, has utilized feedback from many past Tree Plotter clients to continually improve the capabilities and user-friendliness of the application. In creating the CO-TreeView tool, Plan-It Geo has also taken into account the feedback of the Colorado Tree Coalition and other stakeholders to customize the application for Colorado users.

Do I need to download software to use CO-TreeView? No software download is required to utilize the full functionality of the CO-TreeView tool. All that is needed is a mobile device or PC and web browser.

Do I need an account to use CO-TreeView? To add, edit, update, or upload tree inventory data to this tool, you first need to register. You can choose to join an existing organization or create a new one.

I don’t have geographic information system (GIS) software. Can I still add my inventory information to CO- TreeView? CO-TreeView accepts tree inventory data in the form of shapefiles, which are created in GIS software. Thus, GIS software is required to create compatible existing tree inventory data, but it is not required that the person uploading the data have GIS software. If your existing inventory information does not exist in a shapefile format, you may still upload it manually through the mapping interface.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ’s)

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Tree Risk Assessment Program CTC’s Tree Risk Assessment program continued to update materials in 2014 to align with recently published Best Management Practices and Standards around this topic. Updated materials and training sessions are being planned for 2016.

CTC Program Contacts If you are interested in volunteering for a specific program or have any questions regarding a Colorado Tree Coalition program, please contact the Program Leader bye-mail.

Membership Program

• Phil Hoefer Pjhoefer@aol.com, Kamie Long Kamie.Long@ColoState.edu, Laurel Brabec, Adam Moore

Awards Program

• Karen Scopel, Phil Hoefer, Wendy Ball, Ralph Zentz, Laurel Brabec, Dan Odell CTC Grant Program

• Keith Wood Keith.Wood@ColoState.edu, David Flaig

Champion Tree Bike Classic • Scott Grimes coloradotreeconsultants@yahoo.com, David Flaig

Champion Tree Program • Neal Bamesberger nbamesberg871@hotmail.com, Kyle Sylvester, Ben

Rickenbacker, Vince Urbina Community Forestry Conferences

• Eastern Colorado Communities - Keith Wood Keith.Wood@ColoState.edu • Western Colorado Communities - Vince Urbina Vince.Urbina@ColoState.edu

Colorado Tree Trust and ReForest Colorado Funds • Colorado Tree Trust – Scott Grimes coloradotreeconsultants@yahoo.com • ReForest Colorado – Vince Urbina Vince.Urbina@ColoState.edu or Keith Wood

Keith.Wood@ColoState.edu

Tree Risk Assessment Program • Bill Cassel Bill.Cassel@denvergov.org, Ralph Zentz, Scott Grimes, Kyle

Sylvester, Keith Wood, Vince Urbina Poster Contest

• Kyle Sylvester KSylvester@brightonco.gov, Angela Poulson, Donna Davis, Keith Wood, Shawna Crocker, David Merriman, Matt Johnson, Doug Schoch

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Newsletters, Annual Report and Website • Newsletters/Annual Report –Angela Poulson, Keith Wood, Vince Urbina • Website– Kamie Long Kamie.Long@ColoState.edu • Facebook– Mike McGill mmcgill@erieco.gov, Kyle Sylvester

KSylvester@brightonco.gov, Laural Brabec Notable Tree Program

• Notable Tree Tours – Mike McGill mmcgill@erieco.gov, Karen Scopel, Kyle Sylvester, Neal Bamesberger, Kathleen Alexander, Phil Hoefer, Rich Thurau, Keith Wood

Select Tree Evaluation Program

• Tim Buchanan tbuchanan@fcgov.com, Gertie Grant

Trees Across Colorado • Gertie Grant gertiegrant@estreet.com, Scott Grimes, David Flaig

Emerald Ash Borer • Vince Urbina vince.urbina@colostate.edu, Angela Poulson, Tom Wells, David Flaig,

Keith Wood, Kyle Sylvester, Shiloh Hatcher, Rob Davis, Mike McGill, Kathleen Alexander, Jay Hein

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2015 CTC Grant Program Awards Summary Thanks to on-going financial and administrative support from the USDA Forest Service and the Colorado State Forest Service, dues-paying members, and financial partners the Colorado Tree Coalition (CTC) awarded $46,840 to 16 organizations in 2015. Along with matching funds provided by the grant recipients this helped plant 4,042 trees in communities across Colorado. Each of these projects allowed residents the opportunity to make a difference in their community with a combined total of over 3,391 hours of volunteer service. These grants were made possible through the support of the USDA Forest Service, the Colorado State Forest Service, Xcel Energy Foundation, Xcel Energy Vegetation Management, and the members and supporters of the Colorado Tree Coalition. Since 1991 the Colorado Tree Coalition has awarded 484 grants totaling nearly $801,000. These grants have been matched with over $7.7 million in community money and/or time. As a result of these grants 73,750 trees have been planted throughout the state.

This trademark/signature copy needs to be placed below the logo in a small font size:

© 2012 Xcel Energy Inc. | Xcel Energy is a registered trademarkof Xcel Energy Inc. |

Public Service Company of Colorado, an Xcel Energy Company.

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Since 2004, Xcel Energy Vegetation Management Program has provided nearly $25,000 for utility tree planting demonstration projects. Since 2011, the Xcel Energy Foundation has provided $125,000 in funded projects.

Grant Recipient Highlights – The Alamosa Department of Parks and Recreation and the Alamosa Tree Board- Alamosa Public Tree Inventory and Plantings Project Since the last Alamosa tree inventory in 1995, many new trees have been planted and removed in the city. This grant award of $2000 will enable the inventory of public and street trees so that planting locations can be prioritized. Once planting locations have been finalized, the City of Alamosa will use its modified recommended tree list to select species ideal for each location. 20-30 citizen volunteers that will be involved with 16-18 tree plantings.

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Grant Recipient Highlights – El Paso County- Creek Regional Park Duckwood Area Tree Planting Project El Paso County manages Fountain Creek Regional Park, a 460- acre park situated along Fountain Creek. The Duckwood active play area where 16 new trees will be planted is a 12-acre site with multi-purpose fields, picnic shelters, restrooms, a pond and a playground. Lindens and autumn blaze maples trees were selected for planting; the linden will provide a mass of foliage and deep shade in an upright, pyramidal shape. The autumn blaze maple produces brilliant orange-red colors in the fall. It is dense and healthy branching, known for its excellent speed of growth. Keep Colorado Springs Beautiful (KCSB) will provide10-15 volunteers to plant the trees on Arbor Day, 2015.

Grant Recipient Highlights – The Institute for Environmental Solutions (IES)- Growing the Greenbelt Education and Environmental Health High School Initiative The Institute for Environmental Solutions is partnering with the City of Wheat Ridge for this project.

Tree survival in the Wheat Ridge Greenbelt is a challenge, with efforts to replace tree loss yielding a low survival rate. Engaging local public school students, teachers, and parents in collaboration with open space managers will advance the tree planting and survival goals while introducing a new population of citizens to their environment. IES will work with special needs students to plant the trees.

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Grant Recipient Highlights – The Town of Mancos-2015 Community Kick-Off Tree Planting Project The Town of Mancos has had several years

of Tree Board planting inactivity. The board's focus in 2014 was to eliminate hazardous trees, as well as non-native, unsuitable street trees from the Town. The Tree Board would like to use the funds from the Colorado Tree Coalition grant, and the match, for trees that are suitable street trees - trees that also beautify and cool and shade the Town. The Tree Board would also like to fill out empty street tree areas throughout the Town.

Grant Recipient Highlights – Project Learning Tree- Project Learning Tree Free Trees for Educators Project

This grant award enables the continuation of a project began last year. In past years, educators frequently requested trees from PLT for various purposes and projects. In 2014, PLT was finally able to address these requests when they purchased approximately 2,000 trees from the CSFS nursery and distributed them to educators at no cost. CTC grant funding in 2015 will help enable the continuation of the program into 2015.

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Grant Recipient Highlights – Rocky Ford Tree Board-2015 Tree City Growth The 2015 Tree City Growth project involves tree planting and revitalization in two locations. At the first location, volunteers from the Future Farmers of America will plant new trees – including pinion pine and juniper – at the east entrance to Rocky Ford, which is currently covered by weeds and dead trees.

In the second area, downtown Rocky Ford, Girl Scouts will assist with new treeplantings.

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Events and Outreach Eastern Colorado Community Forestry Conference The annual Eastern Colorado Community Forestry Conference was held in the City of Trinidad on Thursday, April 9, 2015 and was hosted by the City of Trinidad, CSU Extension, CSFS, CTC, the Purgatoire Watershed Partnership and the Trinidad History Museum. Over 35 attendees participated in the conference this year including presenters, Tree Board members, interested citizens, and community and agency representatives from southeastern and southern Colorado. The conference focused on providing information on threats to the southeastern Colorado community and riparian tree resource, including emerald ash borer and invasive species such as tamarisk and Russian-olive. Presentations also included information on good tree species selections for the region and an update on the City of Trinidad’s and Town of La Veta’s tree programs. Attendees also had the chance to get some hands-on pruning experience with afternoon outdoor sessions.

Western Colorado Community Forestry Conference The annual Western Colorado Community Forestry Conference was held in Montrose on Friday, September 11th, 2015. The event took place at the Montrose Pavilion. This was the second time that Montrose has hosted the WCCFC. The first times was in 2006 and the theme that year was “Money Does Grow on Trees.” This year’s theme was “Tree Risk Awareness”, and the 42 attendees were introduced to the recently revised Colorado Tree Coalition’s Tree Risk Assessment form and methodology. Based on the International Society of Arboriculture’s BMP on Tree Risk Assessment, the CTC risk assessment methodology takes the quantitative approach to rating a tree’s risk. From tree selection to tree pests, all of this year’s speakers used tree risk as the focus of their presentation. After lunch, all attendees were given the opportunity to quantitatively rate some large trees near the Pavilion using the new CTC Tree Risk Rating form.

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ProGreen, Workshops, and Other Events The Colorado Tree Coalition was once again able to obtain free booth space at several events in 2015 to distribute literature on CTC programs and services and to sell and give away merchandise. These events included the ProGreen Expo held at the Denver Convention Center in January, the Greeley Tree Care Workshop in February, the Colorado State Capitol, Eastern Colorado Community Forestry Conference in Trinidad and Estes Park GeoFest in April, the City of Greeley’s Arbor Day celebration in May, the Plant Health Care Workshop in Fort Collins in June, grand opening event at Whistling Duck Furniture in June, the North American Tree Climbing Championship event in Longmont in September, the ISA-RMC Annual Conference in Keystone in September. The CTC booth is always a popular gathering spot at these events to catch up with old friends, make new ones and form long-lasting partnerships.

CSFS COMMUNITY FORESTRY, CTC CELEBRATE ANNIVERSARIES A 25-year timeline, historical interview, online story map, ash replacement guide and commemorative calendar celebrate milestones

Twenty-five years ago, the passing of the 1990 farm bill marked the formal beginning of the Colorado State Forest Service’s Urban and Community Forestry (U&CF) program in Colorado. To celebrate this milestone, the CSFS has compiled a timeline of notable events from 1990 to the present, including notable projects, severe weather events and the formation of new organizations and programs.

Timeline of Notable Events 1990: The 1990 U.S. farm bill passes. The Community Forestry Assistance Program, part of the Forestry Title of the farm bill, mandated increased funding for states who formed a tree council, appointed a statewide urban forestry coordinator and enhanced volunteer opportunities in urban forestry. The passage of the bill also provided grant opportunities for Colorado communities.

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1990: The National Tree Trust Act provides a one-time grant for the National Tree Trust (NTT) as part of the America the Beautiful Act. The NTT mobilized volunteer groups, promoted public awareness, provided grants and united civic and corporate institutions in support of local tree planting and education projects throughout the United States. Jim Hubbard, president of the National Association of State Foresters and Colorado State Forester at the time, was a member of the federal committee that held hearings on the NTT. 1990: The State Street Tree (SST) grant program awards grants to the Colorado communities of Buena Vista, Gunnison, La Junta, Manitou Springs, Monte Vista, Nucla, Olathe, Silverthorne, Steamboat Springs and Sugar City. From 1990 to 2002, the SST program awarded more than $269,000 to Colorado communities. 1990: Tamarron Resort outside Durango hosts the first Western Colorado Community Forestry Conference (WCCFC), themed “Why Trees?... a Look to the 90’s.” The conference introduced communities to grant opportunities provided by the farm bill and to programs driven by George H.W. Bush’s American the Beautiful tree planting initiative. 1990: The Colorado Urban Forest Council (CUFC) finalizes its first urban tree hazard evaluation form. The CUFC committee was formed in 1989, leading to one of the first urban tree risk programs in the United States. 1991: A Denver Metro Office is established by the Colorado State Forest Service (CSFS), consolidating three district offices that had been involved in the area. While many Denver Metro cities have forestry or arborist offices, the CSFS Denver Metro Office provides technical forestry assistance to Denver Metro municipalities on insect and disease diagnosis, tree inventories, management planning and other topics. 1991: On April 12, Ralph Campbell, Paul Ryan, Jim Feucht, Carl Wilson, Ralph Zentz, Greg Long and Phil Hoefer of CUFC (originally formed as Denver Metro Foresters in 1982) rename the group to the Colorado Tree Coalition and rename CUFC to the Front Range Urban Forestry Council (FRUFC). The change formalized fulfillment of the 1990 farm bill’s requirement that states have a statewide tree council. 1991: The Halloween Freeze of 1991 kills thousands of Siberian elms throughout eastern Colorado. 1992: The Center for Urban Forest Research is founded in Davis, Calif. as part of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service. The center has provided many resources valuable to Colorado foresters since its founding, including the Northern Mountain and Prairie Community Tree Guide published in 2003. 1994: Thirty-four Colorado communities receive grant funds from the Small Business Administration for tree planting projects. Section 24 of the Small Business Act enabled pass- through grants for projects hiring small businesses for plantings on state and government lands. More than $744,000 in street tree planting grants were awarded in 1994 and 1995 as a result of the act. 1995: American Forests introduces CITYgreen geographic information systems software. The program helped cities in Colorado and other states begin to quantify the ecosystem services benefits provided by existing community forests.

Colorado State Forester/NASF President Jim Hubbard and USDA Forest Service Chief Dale Robertson in Washington in December of 1989, just four months prior to the introduction of the Tree Trust Act in the 101st United States Congress

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1995: The Colorado Tree Coalition incorporates as a 501 (c)3 non-profit. Mid-1990s: PEGSMOR concept introduced, stating that tree management tasks must be scheduled in accordance with each of the tree’s stages of growth: Planting, Establishment, Growth, Structure, Mature, Overmature and Replacement. 1996: The first signs of mountain pine beetle outbreak appear in Colorado. Between 1996 and 2015, approximately 3.4 million acres were affected by the beetle. 2001: The Arbor Day Foundation’s Tree City USA Program – which began providing cities with a framework for public tree management and expansion in 1976 – celebrates its 25th anniversary. In 1977, Colorado Springs and Fort Collins become the first cities in Colorado to earn the Tree City USA designation. 2001: An American Forest Study of Denver and Front Range communities uses CITYgreen software in conjunction with satellite (Landsat) and aerial imagery to characterize landscape and canopy changes from 1986 and 1998. Results revealed urbanization as a serious threat to urban forests in Colorado and emphasized the value of urban trees. 2002: Colorado experiences its worst drought in more than 300 years, impacting urban and community trees statewide. Early 2000s: Unexplained black walnut deaths along the Front Range, originally thought to be drought-related, are eventually recognized as thousand cankers disease. 2004: Shell Oil Company and the Colorado Department of Natural Resources work together to initiate the ReForest Colorado campaign to raise money for forest restoration in the wake of wildfires and other natural disasters. The campaign raised public awareness of the need for forest rehabilitation and consolidated existing funds pools including the Colorado Tree Coalition’s (CTC) Community Forestry Disaster Fund. The consolidated funds are now managed by the CTC as the Reforest Colorado Fund. 2004: Xcel Energy’s Vegetation Management Program awards its first Colorado grant to the City of Brush for the Petteys Park Tree Replacement project, which replaced inappropriate tree species under power lines. From 2004 to 2015, the Xcel Energy Vegetation Management Program provided nearly $25,000 to Colorado communities for utility tree planting demonstration projects. 2006: The United States Forest Service (USFS) and Davey Tree Expert Company’s new urban forest measurement tool i-Tree is released. The software uses tree inventory data to model the ecological and economic benefits of urban trees and forests. 2006: During his 2006 annual State of the City address, Mayor John Hickenlooper announces The Mile High Million tree planting initiative to add one million new trees in metropolitan Denver by the year 2025. Later, under the new leadership of Mayor Michael Hancock (sworn in in 2011), The Mile High Million shifts some of its focus to the care of existing trees. 2007: The Colorado State Forest Service awards $1 million in grants to fund forest restoration projects in 12 Colorado communities. The funds were made available through the Colorado Community Forest Restoration grant program established by the Colorado General Assembly through House Bill 07-1130. 2009: The CSFS receives $10.7 million in stimulus funds through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and awards grants that directly benefit 20 Colorado communities. $4.5 million went toward jobs that supported the development and implementation of community wildfire protection plans. 2009: The USDA Forest Service’s Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) group and the CSFS complete Colorado’s first statewide inventory for urban/community forests, filling in gaps left by the USDA’s original Forest Inventory Assessment to better assess tree and forest populations in Colorado urban/community areas. The study used data from sample plots that comprised about 3 percent of Colorado’s land area to extrapolate urban forest-wide statistics. The analysis was

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made using the USDA’s UFORE software. 2010: The CSFS, the Colorado Association of Conservation Districts, the Colorado Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Rocky Mountain Region of the USFS sign an interagency memorandum to improve land stewardship in Colorado. The memo recognized the CSFS’s “primary leadership role and responsibility for delivery of forestry programs on state and private lands in Colorado.” 2011: The Xcel Energy Foundation awards its first Colorado grant to the cities of Alamosa, Pueblo, Sterling, Louisville and Wheat Ridge to improve city entryways, downtown areas, parks and streetscapes with additional trees. Between 2011 and 2015, the Xcel Energy Foundation provided $125,000 to Colorado communities. 2012: In June and July, multiple fires burn across central and northern Colorado. The High Park Fire near Fort Collins burned more than 87,000 acres. 2013: The CSFS initiates the Restoring Colorado’s Forests Fund, which uses tax-deductible donations to pay for seedlings to be planted on state and private land in areas severely impacted by wildfires and other natural disasters. Seedling trees used in the program are grown at the CSFS nursery on the Colorado State University Foothills Campus in Fort Collins. 2013: Emerald ash borer (EAB) discovered in Boulder by Kendra Nash. 2013: In September, historic rainfall and flooding hits Colorado, with flood conditions stretching from Colorado Springs to Fort Collins. 2014: In April, the CSFS and the Arbor Day Foundation launch the Colorado Community Tree Recovery Campaign, focused on revitalizing the tree canopy destroyed by the High Park Fire but also providing trees to those affected by other destructive wildfires in the state. 2014: Davey Resource Group and the CSFS complete a sample-based urban forest inventory project designed to provide an overview of Colorado urban forests’ relative age distribution, forest structure, health and specific benefits. The project involved 200 sample plots each in a western project area and central project area and in an eastern plains project area. The data was analyzed using i-Tree Eco software from the USFS Northern Research Station. 2014: On Nov. 12, the temperature in Denver drops to a record low of -13 degrees, down from a high of 64 degrees only two days earlier (the third-largest temperature drop ever recorded in the Denver area). The freeze damaged and killed both evergreen and deciduous trees across the state. 2014: Colorado becomes the third state to have more than 100 of its communities earn Firewise Communities/USA Recognition for taking steps to reduce their wildfire risk. Under the program, communities developed an action plan to guide residential risk-reduction activities and encouraged neighbors to become active participants. 2015: In February, the CO-TreeView community tree mapping website is unveiled. CO-TreeView allows foresters, arborists and other groups to inventory and map community trees, enabling proactive, data-driven forest management planning, grant solicitation and public outreach. While designed for utility in a broad range of applications, the CO-TreeView tool was created in response to the discovery of EAB in Boulder in late 2013. 2015: The 2014 Forest Health Report, an installment of an annual publication by the CSFS that began in 2002, focuses on urban and community forestry and is titled Urban and Community Forests: An Investment in Colorado.

The CSFS also spoke with Phil Hoefer, who worked for the CSFS for more than 30 years and was the community forestry coordinator when the Farm Bill passed. In this exclusive interview, Hoefer describes firsthand many of the events that shaped community forestry in the state, including the arrival of Dutch elm disease, the passage of federal mandates like the Cooperative Forestry Assistance Act and the collection of the first digital tree inventories.

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2015 marks 60 years since the Colorado State Forest Service was established by the Colorado General Assembly in 1955. In its early years, the CSFS focused on programs like timber resources management, rural fire assistance and conservation tree distribution. Over time, though, the focus of the CSFS has evolved beyond traditional, rural forestry to include community forest management and outreach. One major event that facilitated this evolution was the passage of the 1990 Farm Bill 25 years ago. While Colorado had received some federal funding for community forestry projects previous to 1990, the 1990 Farm Bill provided more federal funding for community forestry in Colorado than ever before. While the Farm Bill of 1990 played a major role in making the state’s community forestry program what it is today, community forestry efforts and programs in Colorado began long before 1990. Phil Hoefer, who worked for the CSFS for more than 30 years and was the community forestry coordinator when the 1990 Farm Bill passed, saw firsthand many of the events that have shaped community forestry in the state. To help the CSFS celebrate its accomplishments over the past 60 years, Hoefer spoke with us about the past, present and future of community forestry in Colorado.

Interview- CSFS: When the CSFS was established in 1955, community forestry wasn’t really a focus. When did that start to change?

Hoefer: It goes back to 1968, when Dutch elm disease was discovered in Colorado. Dutch elm disease made a major impact on streetscapes in the Midwest, but when it was discovered in Fort Morgan, not much was done about it at first. The state's attitude then was that if it's a city tree, it’s a city problem, and we don't get involved with that. But Dutch elm disease became a major concern in our communities, and people were starting to realize at that point that trees do a lot of things for a community besides providing beauty. So people were really upset when those trees started dying and they wanted some action. And who was going to do that? The few cities that actually had foresters struggled to deal with this kind of crisis. Rural communities had little to no expertise available.

So some money came down from the state level, and in 1970, the CSFS hired John Laut to head up the Insect and Disease Division of the Colorado State Forest Service. Mountain pine beetle and Dutch elm disease were two significant problems. If it wasn't for Dutch elm disease, I don't think a lot of community forestry programs would exist today, in Colorado and nationwide. It affected everybody.

CSFS: How did Dutch elm disease help to develop communityforestry?

Hoefer: When the Dutch elm disease program was going on, it was sort of a search and destroy type of thing; at that time, the treatment was to have an infected tree removed and burned or buried. So to find these trees, we hired crews to go out and inventory every large- leaf elm in the state of Colorado. Even though it was just large leaf elms, like American elm, that would have been one of the first large-scale urban tree inventories ever done in the state. We put people on bicycles, riding up and down streets, and we had maps of every city, every community.

In the process of doing that, we also saw other issues, one of them being that once a tree was removed, new trees oftentimes weren't being planted in their place. And we saw trees being topped, or otherwise not cared for properly. We saw all these little issues coming up. So that was a catalyst to get more involved.

Then, in the mid-1970s, we found a model to help us do that. At the time, the USDA Forest Service was interested in helping states with urban forestry, but I don’t think they had even really defined urban forestry at that point. So they decided to do some pilot projects, giving money to several state forestry agencies to see how they would manage it. Kansas got funding, and Kansas was very similar to Colorado in that they were associated with the state land-grant university and were more education-oriented than some other states. So we picked up the information from Kansas and followed their model, but giving districts the responsibility instead of a central office. Even before we got any money for it, our state forester at the time – Tom Borden – knew community forestry was going to be an up-and-coming thing. So he shifted funds so that we could do it. Without Tom Borden, I don’t think community forestry in this state would be what it is, even today.

Then another big thing happened in 1978 - the Cooperative Forestry Assistance Act – which authorized funding for states for state and private forestry, including urban forestry. It was a meager amount even nationally, like $2.7 million. After federal administration costs, we got something like $30,000 to $50,000 a year. But we had the Kansas model in place, and the act provided money, and we ran with it. We started doing street tree inventories, we were continuing with Dutch elm disease, we were putting management planstogether...

CSFS: That was around the same time the Denver Metro Foresters got started, right? Tell me a little about that.

Hoefer: The Denver city forester at the time was Ray Howe. I was at the stock show, and Ray Howe and I started talking to each other. And he said 'what about the idea of getting the metro communities of Denver together? The few arborist companies and city foresters used to do that years ago, in the late 1940s, but that dwindled over the years. And that was how the Denver Metro Foresters got started in 1982. Wemet quarterly on a Thursday morning and had coffee and doughnuts. Programs usually revolved around city tree issues andmanagement. Often Dave Leatherman, entomologist at the time, would talk about various insects and disease issues. It brought a lot of city employees involved in community forestry together, and they really appreciated it. That group was the beginnings of the Colorado Tree Coalition.

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CSFS: And then the next major event was the 1990 Farm Bill? Hoefer: That was big, because the $2.7 million from 1978 had really dwindled down, and there was a need for federal money to keep the community forestry program moving. So the Farm Bill passed, and all of a sudden here comes $30 million from this bill. It helped us to hire a lot of folks to help do urban forestry throughout the state, and really helped communities – especially the smaller ones – to get grant funding and plantings. There were stipulations to getting the funding, one being that you had to have an urban forestry coordinator for the state; well, I was already doing that along with plains forestry. We met the other requirements as well. That bill really put more petrol in the tank to get urban forestry going and to get more urban forestry research going. It was huge money. And it was a good time - I mean those were the heydays.

CSFS: What other things stand out in your mind when you think about the development of urban forestry in Colorado?

We always struggled with accomplishment reporting. What are we measuring? When you're doing traditional forestry, you can say acres treated, or board feet removed, those kinds of things. But with urban forestry, what do you measure? Counting the number of ‘communities following plans’ was my big thing and even that was confusing. I guess today the new measurement is % canopy cover. I'm just not quite sure how you take that measurement to getting work accomplished on the ground, but it sounds like a great tool.

Another thing that stands out is Ronald Reagan's Jobs Bill in the early 80s. We were suffering from unemployment during his early presidency, so he got a jobs bill out that provided funds to hire unemployed people for public service projects. In our case, these funds were funneled through the US Forest Service to the interested states. It was money, and Tom Borden said to go after it. So we hired people and provided them pruning saws, loppers, a ladder and training. They would walk every sidewalk in the town. If they got their heads hit with a tree branch, and it was a public tree, they would get up there and prune the branches.

We had other major federal projects as well that related to urban and community forestry. The Small Business Administration had a program to stimulate small businesses. We focused on arborists and plant nurseries. Our districts generated some good projects for those funds. Also the Denver Urban Resources Partnership program. It focused on Denver Metro communities but there were a number of interesting projects with these funds, though not specifically geared toward tree planting and care.

Another sort of milestone I think is worth mentioning is what we were doing with street tree inventories. Larry Helburg and I used to go out and do basic inventories, but it was really time consuming. You had to collect data by hand, and transcribe it to a computer. Cities with "main frame" computers had to arrange times in order to run the data collected for them. Larry and I thought there might be a better way of doing this. There was a Radio Shack computer that came out called an RS-300 that ran on batteries. The state sure wasn’t going to buy it, but Iput it on my credit card because I really wanted to try it. So Larry Helberg and I went down to the

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city of Florence and did an inventory with that machine. The memory was only like 32 kilobytes, so we had to code everything. Even then, we were only able to do two or three blocks at a time before we would have to find a phone to download the text information to a storage site at CSU. It was "cutting edge" in my opinion and more efficient than how we did it before. Those Radio Shack machines were expensive, about $600, but we finally convinced the state to buy a few of those. We had four or five of them. I think we were probably one of the first states in the nation to collect an urban inventory in that way. Also, the CSFS purchased some Apple IIe computers to help manipulate the data we collected.

CSFS: You mentioned funding as an obstacle to getting the computers. Do you think funding is a significant obstacle to community forestry today?

Hoefer: For federal and state leadership, yes, I think funding is the big thing. It is difficult to get much accomplished without financial resources. Volunteerism only goes so far and, believe me, the urban and community forestry program coordinates a lot of volunteers, especially for tree planting. Leadership costs money. Federal, state and community funds are necessary to make sure our cities and towns have healthy and productive trees. Dutch elm disease generated an awareness of the value of trees. It was the "crisis" that got funds flowing from all sources. Emerald ash borer is likely the next urban tree disaster to get funds flowing to assist states and communities having to deal with the removals but also with majorreplanting. Whether we’ve had big funding or not, though, we’ve always gotten the job done. I think the overall quality of tree care throughout Colorado has improved tremendously over the years thanks to CSFS, CSU Extension, quality arborists, and all of our communities’ efforts. I do think the urban and community forestry program made and is making a difference.

The U&CF program at CSFS has also created an online story map celebrating 25 years of noteworthy grant-funded projects since the passage of the 1990 farm bill, complete with historical photos and other images. The story map highlights 10 noteworthy grant awards/planting projects that demonstrate the broad impact of urban forestry efforts in Colorado on cities large and small over the past 25 years. Visit this interactive map here, on the Esri story map website.

2016 will mark another urban forestry milestone in Colorado: the formal beginnings of the Colorado Tree Coalition (CTC). In 1991, a group of foresters from in and around Denver renamed their group to The Colorado Tree Coalition, formalizing fulfillment of the 1990 farm bill’s requirement that states have a statewide tree council. In anticipation of this 2016 milestone, the Colorado Tree Coalition has released a free tool to assist with the selection of ideal replacement species for ash trees lost to the invasive pest emerald ash borer (EAB). The guide walks planters through the process of planning their ash replacements, from the determination of diversity goals based on unique planting scenarios to the selection of ideal shade tree species. Each of the 25 species recommended in the guide represent one year in the CTC’s 25-year history of preserving, renewing and enhancing Colorado’s community forests. Download the guide here (Excel, 1.2MB).

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The CTC has also developed a 25th anniversary calendar of notable trees in Colorado, bringing together the most stunning professional photographs and inspiring stories from past calendars in this commemorative 2016 edition. The calendar displays the state’s most spectacular trees, notable because of their appearance, historical value and/or record size. Each month’s featured tree is accompanied by interesting facts and historical anecdotes. Download this brochure (Word, 676KB) for ordering information.

CTC Releases 25th Anniversary Calendar-Calendar Displays Stunning Photos of Notable CO Trees The Colorado Tree Coalition has released a commemorative edition calendar of notable Colorado trees in celebration of CTC’s 25th anniversary. The calendar brings together the most stunning professional photographs and inspiring stories from past calendars. Click here for more information, a list of sponsors and a printable order form. Or, order your 2016 calendar through the CTC Store. For a limited time only, new and renewing memberships at the Patron or Business/Community level will automatically receive 5 free calendars at the shipping address indicated on their order; Family-level new and renewing members will receive 1 free calendar. Buy or renew a membership.

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Financials Colorado Tree Coalition 2015 Treasurer’s Report Submitted by Becky Wegner

The Colorado Tree Coalition (CTC) continued to operate at an efficient level spending less than 10% on administration. This is accomplished through the support of the Colorado State Forest Service, an all-volunteer Board of Directors and a group of long term partners and granting organizations. In 2015 the Board had an audit done to reconcile accounts and review procedures.

CTC has been on the leading edge of Emerald Ash Borer efforts in Colorado. In 2015, CTC continued project funding with a grant from the Tree Fund and partnered with ISA-RMC on a statewide Plant Health Care Workshop.

To celebrate 25 years of supporting community forestry in Colorado, the Colorado Tree Coalition produced a commemorative edition of the Notable Trees of Colorado Calendar. Fort Collins. Twelve companies and organizations stepped up to sponsor the calendar (Fort Collins Wholesale Nursery, Xcel Energy, Alameda Wholesale Nursery, USDA Forest Service, Colorado State Forest Service, Mountain High Tree Service, Garden of the Gods Visitor Center, Green Spot Nursery, USDA (APHIS), ISA-RMC, CALCP and ArborScape Tree Service).

Xcel Energy remains a partner, providing $25,000 in pass through grants to 4 communities in areas served by the utility provider as well as additional support of the traditional community grants program. Since 1991, the CTC has been providing grants to assist forestry programs in cities and towns across Colorado. In 2015, over $25,000 was awarded to communities throughout the state to support tree, planting, management and education projects in their community.

Trees Across Colorado (TAC) continues to provide good urban trees for communities across Colorado, providing revenue for other CTC programs. The Tour de Poudre bicycle ride, an annual fundraising event, netted over $2,100. These proceeds were split between the Reforest Colorado Fund and a donation to the Tree Fund. The Reforest Colorado Fund provided a $5,500 grant to the City of Canon City and the Royal Gorge, to help with reforestation in areas devastated by a wildfire in 2013.

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Colorado Tree Coalition 2015 Statement of Activities January 1, 2015 through December 31, 2015

Ordinary Income

Government Income Government Grants

20,000.00

Government Memberships 840.00

Total Government Income 20,840.00

Non-Government Income

Tour de Trees Bike Ride 2,626.00 Membership Dues 2,091.00 Xcel Energy Foundation Grants (pass-thru) 25,000.00 Xcel Vegetation Management Grant 2,044.32 Reforest Colorado Fund 270.00 Tree Fund Grant (EAB Projects) 4,029.34 Other Donations 1,092.32

Total Non-Government Income 37,152.98

Merchandise Sales 780.32

Total Merchandise Sales 780.32

Program Service Revenue

STEP (Select Tree Evaluation Program) 1,508.55 Western Colorado Community Forestry Conference 1,025.00 Notable Trees of Colorado Calendar 9,750.00 Colorado Arbor Day Poster Contest 500.00 Plant Health Care Workshop 10,650.00 Trees Across Colorado 42,815.00

Total Program Service Revenue 66,248.55

Total Income 125,021.53

Ordinary Expense

Board Development Expense CTC Administration 12,052.24 Accounting Audit 3,500.00 Board/Member Education 1,175.00 Colorado Municipal League Membership 275.00

Total Board Development 17,002.24

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Program Development Expense Grants Awarded 25,840.00 Grant Expenses 674.57 Notable Tree App/Notable Tree Calendar 14,936.01 Champion Tree Program – “Bring Back the Blue” Rewards1,000.00 Colorado Arbor Day Poster Contest 522.31 STEP 1,500.00 Trees Across Colorado 31,227.27 Xcel Energy Foundation Grants (pass-thru) 24,000.00 EAB Inventory Web Tool/Colorado TreeView 11,900 EAB Projects (Tree Fund Grant) 4,029.34

Total Program Development Expense 115,629.50

Membership/Fundraising Expense Communications/Website

540.83

Marketing 1,034.37 Tour de Poudre Bike Ride 533.76 Tree Fund Donation (from Bike Ride proceeds) 1,100.00 Chapter Expense 338.96 Membership Expenses 432.00 Awards 106.35 Plant Health Care Workshop 10,478.15 Western Colorado Community Forestry Conference 1,090.58 Reforest Colorado Grant awarded to Canon City/Royal Gorge5,500.00 Sponsorship ISA-RMC Annual Conference 2,500.00

Total Membership/Fundraising Expense 23,655.00

Total Expense 156,286.74

Current Accounts

CTC Checking 163,511.55 Community Forestry Disaster Fund 41,351.26 Tree Trust Account 41,256.87

Total Checking/Savings 246,119.68

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Partnerships A big part of the Colorado Tree Coalition’s success is due to its partnerships with other organizations. Now, more than ever, the CTC partners with several credible organizations. Partnering offers organizations a way to pool scarce resources and brings out the talents of individual members to achieve particular goals. Following is a list of organizations CTC has partnered with in the past or continues to partner with:

Colorado State Forest Service-The Colorado State Forest Service continues to provide the support necessary for CTC to be a successful non-profit organization. The CTC would not be able to function as effectively as it does without the administrative, technical and financial support of the CSFS.

United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service-The USFS also continues to support urban and community forestry programs and those groups administering them, including the CTC’s grant program that receives federal funding through the Farm Bill each year.- “In accordance with Federal law and U.S. Department of Agriculture policy, this institution is prohibited from discriminating on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age or disability. (Not all prohibited bases apply to all programs.). To file a complaint of discrimination: write USDA, Director, Office of Civil Rights, Room 326-W, Whitten Building, 1400 Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, D.C. 20250-9410 or call (202) 720-5964 (voice and TDD). USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer.”

International Society of Arboriculture Rocky Mountain Chapter-The ISA-RMC has been a great partner over the past few years combining efforts with CTC to provide educational seminars, workshops and conferences. ISA-RMC has also played a key role in helping coordinate efforts with the Champion Tree Bicycle Classic the last eleven years.

ArborScape-Denver’s ArborScape Tree Services Company came “on-board” in 2011 to help sponsor the CTC with its poster contest. Lawn and tree care is not just a job at ArborScape— it's an art form. And with 20 years of tree and lawn care history on their side, ArborScape has the experience to make your landscape beautiful and sustainable.

Colorado Public Radio-The CTC expresses its sincerest thanks for the continued partnership with Colorado Public Radio. Through its Evergreen Partner program members choose this convenient and cost saving option and never have to worry about renewing again. Monthly checking account withdrawal subscriptions renew automatically until members contact the membership department to cancel, and a portion of these funds goes to the CTC’s ReForest Colorado program. More info can be found at Evergreen Partner.

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Colorado Municipal League-In 2012 the Colorado Tree Coalition became an Associate Member of the Colorado Municipal League. As such, CTC has been able to promote its programs through the CML newsletter, website, webinars and annual conference. CTC looks forward to expanding its awareness through CML to communities across Colorado.

Xcel Energy Vegetation Management-Xcel Energy continues to support proper tree planting and management near utility lines throughout the state of Colorado, partnering with CTC to get the “right tree in the right place” message out. Xcel Energy continues to help sponsor the CTC Vegetation Management Grant Program and fund projects that promote proper tree planting near utility lines. Funding since 2004 has amounted to nearly $25,000 to the grantprogram.

Xcel Energy Foundation-CTC and the Xcel Energy Foundation continue to partner on a statewide tree planting grant program that has made a significant difference in communities impacted by storms and budget cuts across Colorado. Since 2011 this program has distributed $125,000 worth of grant funding to Xcel-served communities across the State.

BKI Woodworks-BKI Woodworks was started in 1979 by its current owner and is one of the longest operating professional cabinetry and woodshops in Boulder, Colorado. BKI continues to support the ReForest Colorado fund through donations made by their clients andcustomers.

Peaks N Pines Brewing Company-Peaks n Pines, a newly opened brewery in Colorado Springs, established its first week of business in November 2015 to provide a portion of sales as a donation to CTC's ReForest Colorado fund. Check them out at www.peaksnpinesbrewery.com.

Trees Across Colorado-CTC began its partnership with Trees Across Colorado (TAC) in 2004. TAC is a shade tree distribution program administered by Gertie Grant providing trees to community groups at wholesale prices. TAC continues to be a successful program in distributing trees to communities and groups all over Colorado and has been a successful fundraiser for CTC as well, bringing in nearly $11,000 in 2015!

Colorado Tree Coalition Members and Donors-Last, but certainly not least, our wonderful members join in around the state to provide support for grant projects, local educational opportunities, Arbor Day programs and numerous other events that promote sound community forestry management in Colorado.

Wethank all of our partners for working closely with CTC and look forward to future endeavors to work together to preserve, renew and enhance our communityforests.

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Make a double difference today!

Colorado Tree Coalition is matching donations to the TREE Fund today, up to $1,100. Let's make the most of this generous

gift - give to the TREE Fund today!

Click to Donate Now

When the devastating and fast-moving emerald ash borer first made its appearance in Colorado in 2013, the Colorado Tree Coalition (CTC) knew it was critical to educate communities about it immediately.

TREE Fund 552 S. Washington St.

Naperville, Illinois 60540 630-369-8300

www.treefund.org

Using a TREE Fund grant, the CTC's Emerald Ash Borer Colorado Public Relations project has resulted in more than 100,000 affected citizens gaining awareness of EAB and access to EAB resources. Colorado communities have learned how to plan for and budget their response to EAB, thus decreasing the risk and speed of the infestation and reducing its financial impact. As part of this project, CTC collaborated with other organizations and communities and leveraged existing resources. In the end, the project's impact was magnified far beyond the initial investment.

With CTC's generous matching gift today, your impact will be magnified! Please donate

2015 Annual Report To view an interactive, downloadable version of this report, visit http://issuu.com/coloradotreecoalition/docs/ctc_annual_report_2015

or scan the QR code below. Click "Share" > "Download" to download the PDF.

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Leading Colorado’s efforts to preserve, renew, and enhance community forests

Visit http://www.coloradotrees.org

/get_involved.php to donate, volunteer, or

become a CTC member.