February 17, 2021
City receives funds for tree inventory program
For Immediate Release
February 17, 2021
The Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Division of Forestry, awarded the City of Richmond, Street and Parks and Recreation Departments $22,670 of federal funds for a Tree Inventory and Management Planning Project.
This project is made possible through federal funds awarded to the Division of Forestry from the USDA Forest Service, Northeastern Areas. Richmond was one of seven projects that were funded through this 2020 Community and Urban Forestry Assistance Grant.
Earth Charter Indiana also helped pave the way for this opportunity through their in-kind grant proposal preparation. Earth Charter Indiana supplies resources for nine Resiliency Coordinators to work on issues of climate resiliency throughout Indiana. Richmond's Coordinator is Alison Zajdel.
“Alison worked to complete this grant on behalf of the departments and we are very thankful for her work and Earth Charter Indiana for their commitment to natural resources in our area.” stated Denise Retz, Park Superintendent.
The Street Tree Commission has been actively managing high priority residential tree needs for several years and through their monthly meetings they will begin to assist in identifying, assessing, and managing a select quadrant of trees determined in project. The grant will allow the departments and commission to access a software management system, TreeKeeper, for three years.
Training will be made possible through the grant to ensure adequate data is uploaded to the software management system. Park Horticulture Division will work with Street Tree Crew and Commission to lead this project along with volunteers and students when possible.
TL Bosell, Richmond Street Commissioner stated, “We have not had a true tree inventory in over 10 years, but we have done this before and know how crucial it can be to a City to produce a proper Tree Inventory. We are excited to get started and work on a specific area and then continue to build on the inventory in future years.”
Denise Retz, Park Superintendent expresses, “We are grateful for the support of the IDNR. This grant award clearly shows our City’s dedication to tree health within our parks and community.”
Each year the Streets and Parks Departments work together to clear high priority dead ash trees in parks affected by the Emerald Ash Borer through an event called Wood Weekend. Most recently in 2020 Mary Scott Park was completed with all dead ash trees downed and removed and an additional 98 trees were removed in the East section of Glen Miller Park. This provides a total of over 252 Ash Trees removed since the Wood Weekend Event began in 2017.
“We are grateful to those community members that continue to come and help remove downed trees and certainly could not have taken down this many trees alone. Our Street Department team has been very good to us and we are thankful for their partnership.” says Retz.
# # #
The mission of the Richmond Parks and Recreation Department is to provide for the positive development and well-being of the Richmond community through the provision of parks, greenways, trails and recreational programming and facilities while working in cooperation with other service providers and partners in the community to maximize all available resources.
For questions, imagery, or for media requests, please reach out via the contact details below:
Denise Retz
Richmond Parks and Recreation
Superintendent
50 North 5th Street
Richmond, Indiana 47374
Deniseretz@richmondindiana.gov
765-983-PARK
"Parks take a community effort to truly exemplify their full potential”
Sign up for email updates.