News & Announcements

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Helping Communities in Need New community forestry initiative takes shape in north St. Louis County

As a non-profit organization serving the 24 communities within the Normandy School District in St. Louis, Beyond Housing focuses on improving quality of life by taking a comprehensive approach to community development. They strive to make a real impact for their residents by supporting the entire fabric of what makes communities thrive: housing, education, health, job readiness, and economic development.

Asian Longhorned Beetle

In 2008, the exotic invasive Asian Longhorned Beetle (ALB) was first detected in the City of Worcester, Massachusetts.  Following the detection, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts established a cooperative program to eradicate ALB. To eradicate this pest, all infested trees are removed and chipped. Now, nine years later, well over 36,000 trees have been removed from public and private property, including from yards, parks, schools, and streets within the current 110 square mile regulated area that encompasses the entire City of Worcester, the second most populous city in all of New England after Boston, and four surrounding towns and portions of another one.

Restoring Canopy in Ohio’s Asian Longhorned Beetle Eradication Zone

In June 2011, the Asian Longhorned Beetle (ALB) was discovered in Clermont County, Ohio by an Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) service forester responding to a landowner inquiry. Since that discovery, the ODNR Division of Forestry has worked closely with the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) to restore canopy lost from eradication efforts, survey high-risk sites throughout Ohio and educate the public about ALB identification and its potential impacts.

Urban wood used in local art exhibit

The cabinets in your kitchen, your dining room table, floors in your office, and even the paper you write on are all products made from wood. Usually rural wood is used to make the products, but over the past several years a shift has been made, introducing the use of wood from urban areas to make these, and other, products. For example, urban wood has successfully been used in architecture, creating bowls, staircases, tables and now art.

First Steps Toward Developing a Pennsylvania Urban Wood Exchange

Pennsylvania state law requires municipalities to compost or otherwise recycle woody waste rather than to landfill or incinerate it. In isolated incidences, arrangements are made to have logs sawn to lumber, but most often woody debris is ground into mulch. Cities are required to establish a wood waste recycling facility or to contract with a neighboring community that has one. Still, sometimes a community may resort to stockpiling large woody material on an illegal city site, or to burning residential yard waste collected along with other refuse, also illegal. In 2016 the City of Harrisburg initiated the process of securing a site on which to establish a wood waste recycling facility.

Sustainable Urban Forestry In Iowa

The Huxley tree board gathers in the parking lot at Centennial Park early on a Saturday morning.  The tree board is volunteering their time in the summer months to conduct a community tree inventory of the 646 city owned trees.  Their many hours conducting the inventory will result in a tree management plan to improve the health of the city owned trees.  It is estimated that the trees will provide $57,704 worth of benefits annually, but benefits continue beyond the inventory results.  The engagement of the tree board in management of city owned trees will benefit the small community for years to come.