August 7th, 2013

Hello Urban Forests Friends,

Here’s what’s happening in urban and community forestry:

• Invest From the Ground Up launches in Bakersfield & Albany
• Support CaUFC & enter to win great prizes including a stay in a tree house!

Regards,

Sonali Shah
Communications Manager
California Urban Forests Council

Invest From the Ground Up launches in Bakersfield & Albany
We’re excited to announce two community campaigns:
Albany, CA:  We’ve partnered with the City of Albany and other community organizations to create Albany’s First Green Corridor on San Pablo Avenue and neighboring residential neighborhoods. The campaign is focused on promoting the City of Albany’s generous street tree program which for a limited time will offer FREE trees to Albany residents. This campaign will feature mass marketing from billboards to TV PSAs as well as guerrilla efforts including tree value tags and door hangers. On September 28th, we’ll celebrate in a community tree planting event. So mark your calendars; we hope to see you there.

Bakersfield, CA: We’ve partnered with The City of Bakersfield, The Downtown Business Association, Tree Foundation of Kern, and other community organization. This objective of this campaign is to raise awareness of trees. We will be using rint and online advertising in local publications and grassroots efforts such as using non-permanent sidewalk stencils which say “This would be a great place for a tree.”  We are focused on downtown and are promoting an Imagine Trees First Friday event on October 4th dedicated to Trees. Learn more.

Support CaUFC & enter to win great prizes including a stay in a tree house!
We need your financial support in order to continue to support our community trees. Please provide your contribution today.
As a bonus, we have three amazing prizes for our donors. So give by August 16th & get the satisfaction of helping to create healthier communities, but also get entered to win.

Free Fruit for All!
California’s first public orchard blossoms in L.A

The renovated Del Aire Park in Los Angeles County, with 27 fruit trees and eight grapevines, officially opened to the public at the start of the year.

The county paid $4 million for the improvements — and used a little creative financing as the fruit trees were paid for from funds designated for civic art. The purpose was to blend food and aesthetics into ‘edible art’.

“Community gardens and farmers markets are truly the town centers of our communities. These are the places where people gather and get to know each other” said County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas.

Read the full story.

UF Poster Contest for 3rd, 4th and 5th Graders
Know any 3rd, 4th, or 5th Grade Students interested in Trees or Art? Check out the California ReLeaf Arbor Week Poster Contest

Students are asked to create original artwork on the theme “The Trees in my Community are an Urban Forest.”

Submission deadline: Feb 15, 2013

Winners will be featured at the State Fair and awarded cash prizes provided by the California Community Forests Foundation.

Contest rules, classroom curriculum, and prize list are available here.