Executive Director’s Report May 2021
Federal Policy Update – There is a lot going on in DC, and there is related legislation the Sustainable Urban Forest Coalition is tracking and working with members on some of it. Here’s an interesting link on legislation that has related interests for U&CF, some more directly than others.
Periodically we sign on in support letters based on priorities for CA (although we cannot be a member, as we are not a national organization – we can participate because we are a member of Alliance for Community Trees).
Forest Service Regional Update – No update.
Forest Service Funding – I spent a good chunk of April preparing for a Five Year Review for the Forest Service and submitting the requested documents to the FS. I’m happy to say that we were in pretty good shape. The final interview has not taken place yet, but I expect that soon.
Forest Service Research – The LA Urban Center (The Los Angeles Center for Urban Natural Resources Sustainability) held a Spring Partner Meeting yesterday (I am on the Advisory Committee). The Center is under the jurisdiction of the Pacific Southwest Research Center. Part of the mission is to offer research fellowships to a small number of graduate students addressing U&CF-related topics of importance. Yesterday was an update on the progress of last years’ fellow’s progress and the introduction of the new fellows. Also visiting scholar Vivek Shandas is producing some remarkable results in studying the UF in LA. The presentations will be made available soon and I will send along the link once received.
Cal Fire – According to John Melvin, the next round of Grant Funding Applications will be available by next week. There will be no urban wood funding this time but will add education and job creation as a funding category. When I receive the information I will distribute it to you.
CUFAC (California Urban Forest Advisory Committee – to CAL FIRE). I relinquished my seat to allow for others to participate that have not had the opportunity before. I’ve held a seat twice in different terms. My last meeting was on 3/25/2021. The group finalized the Strategic Plan for CAL FIRE U&CF and it is now the guiding document for their work for the next five years. That document is included in this packet.
State Policy & Advocacy – The legislature is back at work, and for the most part virtually. We have begun work on co-sponsoring an Urban Forestry Bill with State Senator Anna Caballero, AB347, The California Community & Neighborhood Tree Fund. We have been able to simplify the process and all funds will go to CAL FIRE U&CF with part (25%) focused exclusively on unincorporated and smaller towns. We’ve moved through most of the committees in the Senate side, and soon the Assembly will take it up. I’ve testified at one committee meeting and was part of a press conference recently as well.
There’s the AB-1500 Safe Drinking Water, Wildfire Prevention, Drought Preparation, Flood Protection, Extreme Heat Mitigation, and Workforce Development Bond Act of 2022, and U&CF is included. Efforts are underway to amend to include more for urban forestry and urban greening along with other community-based investments. We are watching this closely.
Program Updates
NEW – CIRCLE 4.0 Amplifying Urban Forestry –
Work continues with planning meetings being held including with Project Learning Tree, marketing folks at Taylor guitar, and Matt Ritter at Cal Poly SLO. We are beginning a conversation with a PR firm for outreach near the event. We are working on an educational “APP” for kids contracting with Harvey Mudd College. We have a planting date of March 2022. Community-based educational events will ramp up in the months preceding and community-based groups will be instrumental in our success. We will be funding them to support successful efforts. Thirty cities will participate in this one-day, statewide event.
Cool Parks Program –
Novato Arbor Day event was held on May 1, 2021, and it was remarkable. Two locations, 80 trees, beautiful day, perfect turn-out! COVID-19 protocols were in effect. San Marcos planting is the only one remaining for the planting obligations of this program. We will continue our monitoring of all of our trees planted till the end of the grant in March 2022.
City Forest Renewal. Here is a list of the cities we are working with. Please notice the far-right column called “Policy Status”. Our efforts have led to these cities updating the tree care policies comprehensively. You can see three have completed the process. Others are in various stages of review. I feel these outcomes are so important and we’re moving the need on management!
We’ve also held webinars with some of our regional councils on these management topics. Those who have not held their webinar yet are on the calendar or will be soon. Exciting!
City Forest Renewal (CFR 2.0) – has yet to begin other than for administrative purposes – it will begin in earnest by this summer.
The Intersection Between Wildland Urban Interface and Urban Forestry –
This event is coming together and the first one will be on July 29th. Event Title is: Bridging the Gap: Urban Forestry Practices and Policies in High Fire Risk Communities – An Urban Forestry Learning Lab. More details to follow soon.
Prop 1 – California Coastal Conservancy – We are currently going back and forth on final documents but everything should be signed and ready to move on with this project. The San Gabriel Watershed Management Project. 500 trees in ten cities/parks in the watershed.
Regional Councils – It would be fabulous to have the councils submit a monthly report to support our reporting to the Forest Service – here’s the link; we can try again! https://caufc.org/regional-council-report/
2021 Conference – we are in the planning stages with The Urban Wood Network, organizing a virtual conference for October 14, 2021. We will be bridging urban forestry and climate change and essentially a cradle-to-cradle focus on the UF including end-use planning. We are beginning to nail down the process and the participants. More to come in the next month.
American Forests – We are working with them for a limited period of time on The Green Jobs Initiative through our Amplify the Urban Forests grant.
Other
Board member changes – Matt Dienes has submitted his resignation. He was sad about it but is experiencing too many conflicts. Also, Jenn Yost from the Central Coast Council has resigned for similar reasons to Matt. She has so wonderfully recruited Sara Davis, from the City of Carmel as our new representative. Welcome, Sara! We will also be inviting Nick Harvey to join the board.
We have a new bookkeeper – Leda Schulak. She is a top-rate professional and really knows non-profit accounting. Since she only comes to the office once a week we are still in training regarding the ins and outs of our government contracts. She also is helping get caught up on certain QuickBooks processes and other record keeping. I am thrilled to have her!
Updated Employee Handbook – I have been working with our legal firm Nixon-Peabody on revisions to our handbook due to changes in State law. I may have the draft copy to you before the board call on May 20th. We reviewed it today but there were weird formatting issues. We will need a vote by the Board on this update.
Outreach – We are working on drought infographics and social media materials.
We’re developing a relationship with “One Tree Planted”. An international tree planting org that wants to get involved in urban work.
We also have yet another new intern – Nora, working with Deb on our social media posts and with a special assignment to reach out to every water district in the State to get contact information so we can reach out to them with our educational/infographic materials. Last big drought our efforts were very effective.
I am in early conversations with the County of Ventura to bring our program there.
Board of Directors Trainings – In lieu of Board Calls we held two trainings:
1) Equity Training with Jeremiah Simms, which was an evening meeting, held on March 18th
There should be some follow-up, in my opinion, at least as it pertains to the Board of Directors’ composition and focus on who we are and who we represent.
Equity Training Link to Recording
Slides:
CAUFC Equity Session – March 2021.pdf
2) Advocacy on April 22nd with Alliance for Justice – document attached entitled “California Lobbying – CA Urban Forests Council”. Also:
Below is the recording link, which is good for 60 days (Through June 22, 2021). In addition, we offer many free advocacy resources on our website, bolderadvocacy.org, related to today’s training, including:
- Public Charities Can Lobby: Guidelines for 501(c)(3) Public Charities
- Lobbying Flowchart
- 501(h) Lobbying Limit Calculator
- Being a Player: A Guide to the IRS Lobbying Regulations for Advocacy Charities
- Legal Tips on Using Social Media for Advocacy
- Understanding California Lobbying Disclosure Rules
- California Lobbying Disclosure Thresholds: When an Organization Needs to File
- Shaping the Future: A Compliance Guide for Nonprofits Influencing Public Policy in California
Please feel free to contact our hotline if you have any questions about the information we shared in this training or about your nonprofit advocacy rights in general – our attorney-trainers are available every weekday to offer free technical assistance: [email protected] or 866-NP-LOBBY (866-675-6229)
o a [email protected] o 415-528-3540 para comunicarse en español.
These training sessions were in direct relation to requests from all of you through the Strategic Planning Process.
Gordon Mann is acting as an Ad Hoc chair for updating the Annual Awards criteria as well!
Strategic Plan Update – Deb and I need to finalize the overall package of the processes you went through, along with the staff’s efforts. We will prioritize this by the June Board call.
Annual Report – Deb and I are working on that now and hope to have a draft for you by the meeting on May 20th.
Travel – I had my first trip for our program deliverables in over a year over the long Easter weekend. I drove to San Diego where our program team met (socially distanced) on planning our short-term and long-term deliverables. I drove! It was liberating!
Please be well; stay healthy and strong!
Nancy Hughes