CUFC Grant Accomplishments

The Connecticut Urban Forestry Council was awarded a Climate Change Resilience Grant to fund urban forestry projects across the state

Isabelle Zaffetti

January 19, 2024

The DEEP America the Beautiful Climate Equity (ATB- Climate Equity) grants aimed to address climate resilience. Environmental Justice neighborhoods are the most susceptible to climate change and increasing urbanization. Biophysical stressors include more airborne pollutants, flooding due to reduced storm water absorption, and the urban heat island effect. One of the most cost effective remediation methods includes planting trees and encouraging urban canopy growth through our cities and towns. The funds for this grant allowed the Connecticut Urban Forestry Council to provide funding for 3 rounds of grants as well as an educational conference to disseminate knowledge and best practices in regards to improving urban canopy across the state of Connecticut.

CUFC Municipal Grant Recipients by Funding Round

In 2021, DEEP awarded the Connecticut Urban Forestry Council (CUFC) was awarded a $390,000.00 for two rounds of funding. In the Autumn of 2022, the Grant was increased by $130,623.00. This enabled a third round of funding.

	Projects Funded	Municipalities Benefited	Funding Awarded
Round 1	5	5	$179,362.07
Round 2	7	6	$191,135.84
Round 3	4	4	$80,974.00

Distribution of Funds for Three Rounds of Funding

The Connecticut Urban Forestry Council aims to address forestry needs in all types of environments. Urban Forestry is defined by trees located where people live, work, and play. For much of the state, these forestry needs are not exclusively in low urban canopy areas. And in some low canopy areas, planting new trees is a challenge because of existing infrastructure or prejudice. While all of these projects planted trees, some of these projects also aimed to address these concerns through community enrichment or cleaning of the current urban forest.

The man-power responsible for tree planting efforts

Municipality	Recipient Group	Award Amount	Project Type
Bridgeport	Groundwork Bridgeport	$33,642	Planting with volunteers
Greenwich	Greenwich Conservancy	$37,000	Planting with contractor, teaching
New Haven	Urban Resources Initiative (URI)	$37,000	Planting with staff, teaching
Stratford	Town of Stratford	$37,000	Planting with contractor
Windsor	Town of Windsor	$34,720	Planting with staff and volunteers

Round 1 Recipients

Grant Recipient Highlight - The Town of Windsor:

The Town of Windsor took on an ambitious planting and outreach project. They planted 81 trees in and surrounding Environmental Justice neighborhoods and they included youth and volunteers in the strive for community greening. They also offered youth and children's engagement days to teach the ideas behind urban forestry.

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During the May 2022 planting event, there were 10 volunteers and 9 Public Works and Park staff.

The tree warden and other staff were able to provide instruction about the proper tree planting, care, and maintenance.

In July of 2022, staff gave a presentation and a facilitated a design charrette for 15 interns of the Summer Teen Employment Program (STEP) with the Youth Services Bureau (YSB) program. The presentation covered common urban habitats in Windsor and how urban forests can mitigate climate change vulnerabilities

Following the presentation town staff conducted a park design charrette using a proposed park in Windsor. They gave a brief presentation on park design and then worked with the interns to come up with conceptual bubble diagrams of uses and spaces for the park. They asked the interns to consider the ways a park can appeal to a broad range of users and how parks can mitigate climate change.

This is one of the four site maps developed by the interns.

In July 2022, Chloe Thompson, Environmental Planner, hosted an event with the “Summer Fun” camp to discuss what “Urban Forestry” means. The camp consisted of about 40 children between 8 - 10 years old. Before traveling to two different open spaces in town, they were given a presentation on Urban Forestry and how it may affect their own communities.

Of the two open spaces, one was a vacant lot in a commercial and residential area. The other was an established neighborhood park surrounded by residential properties. Each child was asked a series of questions guided by their senses, and asked about which activities they’d like to engage in at each park.

At the end of the trip, students were asked to decide which park they preferred and to explain their reasoning. This allowed the camp kids to contemplate the differences between each location and relate them back to the main concepts provided to them in the presentation. The goal of this event was to initiate an understanding of the importance of Urban Forestry, and inspire them to become stewards or advocates of this within their own communities. The selected locations are important because the town is currently working towards converting the vacant lot into a neighborhood park.

Municipality	Recipient Group	Award Amount	Project Type
Bloomfield	Town of Bloomfield and Trees for Bloomfield	$16,650	Planting with volunteers
Bristol	City of Bristol	$37,000	Planting with staff
Enfield	City of Enfield	$18,972	Planting with volunteers
Hartford	Knox, Inc.	$29,397	Planting with staff, teaching
Hartford	Riverfront Recapture, Inc.	$30,276	Planting with volunteers
Meriden	City of Meriden	$31,500	Planting with staff
Windham	The Windham Garden Club	$27,339	Planting with volunteers, invasive species managment

Round 2 Recipients

Grant Recipient Highlight - Trees for Bloomfield:

This grant aimed to capture the hearts of the community in a wide-spread, volunteer coordinated planting project. The goal was to plant 80 trees in an urban setting, choosing predominately native trees. Homeowners were notified by postcard about an opportunity to plant a free tree, as long as they would sign a two-year maintenance commitment. The project was a wild success.

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Trees for Bloomfield initiated in 2020 is made up of Bloomfield Beautification and Conservation, Energy & Environment Committees, and residents. They work closely with the Department of Public Works and Parks and & Leisure Services. About 30 people were recruited to participate in the TreeKeeper Tree Force.

Trees for Bloomfield worked with vendors to select 80 trees, 10 species options, predominately native species with a variety of seasonal interest. They choose images to showcase the trees' beauty on their postcard.

1157 postcards were sent out. The postcards informed residents within the low-canopy census tracts that they were eligible to select a tree. Within three days, all the trees were reserved.

Tree Kits were assembled by volunteers. This included 1 cu ft of compost in burlap, 2 cu ft of mulch in burlap, a 2 gal watering can, and a CT Tree Owner's Manual.

Also during this prep season, volunteers met with homeowners, delivered Tree Kits, and located ideal planting locations. They also utilized the free service, "Call Before You Dig."

Once trees were ordered, they were delivered to a holding location. From there, volunteers tagged all the trees based on the species and who ordered them.

In September, over three days, the 80 trees were distributed to the homeowners.

Four teams helped with the planting days. Homeowners helped put their trees in the ground.

The trees were Geolocated. They will be checked on every six months for 2 years. And the homeowners will continue to care for the trees in the meantime.

Municipality	Recipient Group	Award Amount	Project Type
Ansonia	Friend of the Ansonia Nature Center	$10,534	Planting with volunteers, teaching
Glastonbury	Town of Glastonbury	$11,000	Planting with staff
New Haven	City of New Haven	$37,000	Canopy management -- stump grinding, tree pruning, removals
Norwalk	Friends of the Norwalk River Valley Trail	$22,110	Planting with volunteers

Round 3 Recipients

Grant Recipient Highlight - The Friends of Ansonia Nature Center:

The Friends of Ansonia Nature Center wanted to build a Legacy Sugar bush. They had a two part project: plant the Sugar bush and contract a mural about Sugaring for inside the Nature Center.

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The Nature Center has mature Sugar Maples, but they are starting to decline. There was some concern about Climate Change, so when purchasing young Sugar Maples, Southern varieties were selected. The project grew from a desire to maintain the New England Legacy for future generations.

An excavator was used to dig the holes for these young trees. This meant there was a larger hole than required. They back-filled the holes before planting the trees.

A combination of Ansonia Nature Center staff and volunteers helped put the trees into the ground. Soil amendments were filled in around the tree.

After the trees were put into the ground, the soil was pulled away from the root flare to expose the roots. A mulch ring was added to keep the roots moist, and to keep water from running downhill.

The project also included educational outreach. The Nature Center decided to contract a mural to be painted on plywood and mounted, so the process of sugaring is visible to all visitors.

Hanging the mural was a challenge because of their size. The plywood was mounted to two by fours, which were mounted to studs. If for whatever reason the mural needs to be moved, that is possible.

The mural will provide a beautiful insight to a food that trees have been providing to people for hundreds of years.