City of Bloomington issued the following announcement on Nov. 20.
The Morton Arboretum’s Community Trees Program has awarded City of Bloomington’s Park, Recreation & Cultural Arts a $7,100 federal forestry grant, which will help the City in performing an updated street tree inventory. A park tree inventory was performed in winter 2017 with help of a similar grant.
The Arboretum awarded more than $170,000 in federal forestry grants to Illinois communities looking to fund tree-related projects. The program aims to help municipalities, park districts, townships, counties, and other local government entities fund projects such as tree planting, obtaining a tree inventory, and developing or updating a tree protection and preservation ordinance or a tree management plan. The federal grants are administered by the Arboretum on behalf of the U.S. Forest Service Department of Agriculture’s Urban and Community Forestry Program, in partnership with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.
Trees are a critical asset to communities, serving many valuable roles including producing oxygen, absorbing rainwater to reduce the threat of floods and offering shelter for local wildlife. They also add beauty, shade and character to neighborhoods.
“This is a great step for us in continuing our scientific based management of the City’s urban forest.” said David Lamb, City of Bloomington’s Assistant Superintendent of Parks and City Forestry adding, “This is very exciting for the City of Bloomington.”
Beth Corrigan, Community Trees Program specialist with The Morton Arboretum, is pleased the grants will enable communities to move forward with their urban forestry plans.
“Trees are an important part of our region’s green infrastructure,” Corrigan said. “Communities are the key to creating a greener, healthier world.”
For more information regarding Bloomington forestry projects contact David Lamb at
309-434-2281.
Original source can be found here.
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