Latest news with #ShadeTreeCommission
Yahoo
21-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Students and others planting trees, cultivating futures
A crew of students from the life skills transitional program housed at Crawford Tech reported for work at Huidekoper Park around midday Wednesday. The day was gray, unseasonably cold and altogether miserable weather-wise, but the students didn't seem to mind as they followed representatives of Penn State Extension and the city of Meadville's Shade Tree Commission. With his red hood pulled over his head and gloves on his hands, Garrett Gerber counteracted the chill by picking up a shovel and joining work on a hole that would soon welcome a new oak tree. 'It's good when you get to be outside,' he said. Gerber and classmates Rhonda Husband and Clarissa Mook, along with life skills paraprofessional Brenda Elliott, joined the city's liaison to the Shade Tree Commission, Alice Sjolander; Shade Tree Commission member Danuta Majchrowicz; and Scott Sjolander, Penn State Extension urban and community forester, to plant five trees in the recently renovated Huidekoper Park. The trees — a mix of swamp white oaks and red maples — are part of a group of 35 trees planted by volunteers over the past 10 days at three city parks and two locations in the city's Fifth Ward thanks to $11,000 in funding from two programs operated by nonprofit TreePennsylvania, the Bare Root Tree grant program and PA's Environmental Justice Forests grant program. Unlike Gerber, Husband had previous experience with tree planting, having participated in a similar event the previous weekend at the Columbia Avenue community orchard, where about a dozen trees were installed. 'You get a workout — you get muscles from it,' Husband said. Mook, a self-described 'farm girl,' was familiar with similar work as well. 'I love it, coming out and helping and planting and weeding and stuff,' she said. 'I just like being outside and meeting new people and learning different things.' All three of the students are 21 and will soon complete the life skills transitional program operated by Northwest Tri-County Intermediate Unit 5. The program allows life skills students to continue in school after the year they turn 18, gaining additional experience, including time spent working at a variety of local businesses and organizations ranging from assisted living facilities to preschools, fast food and ice cream shops to hotels. After completing the program, Gerber will attend Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa, while Husband is eager to begin work at Juniper Village, a place she has already become familiar with through the transitional program. 'I've been wanting to work ever since,' she said. 'I'm very excited I'm finally going to get a chance to actually work outside of school.' The effort at Huidekoper and other city locations came as similar work was being performed in 50 communities across the state. More than 1,200 young trees were distributed for planting, according to Jessica Cavey, program director of Tree Pennsylvania, a private nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing tree canopy across the commonwealth through grant and scholarship programs. Alice Sjolander, who worked on the grant that funded the tree plantings, said another 35 trees will be planted in the fall, primarily along South Main Street and nearby on several cross streets. Where the spring plantings were mostly in parks or similar areas, the fall plantings will be in more urban locations, but all of the trees are relatively mature at 10 feet in height or more. 'These trees will make a big difference in the community pretty quickly,' she said. Sjolander said it remained to be seen if funding for the fall trees remained available. 'They squeaked this one in,' she said, referring to the grant support obtained by TreePennsylvania. The statewide tree planting is a collaborative effort of TreePennsylvania and in collaboration with the state's Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Penn State Extension and the U.S. Forest Service. Ultimately, however, the funding comes from the federal partner — the Forest Service. Since the beginning of the second Trump administration earlier this year, environmental justice programs such as the one providing a portion of the funding for the Meadville tree plantings, have come under consistent fire. Earlier this month, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin labeled environmental justice programs as 'scams' and said he had canceled more than $22 billion in environmental justice and DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) grants and contracts. Jessica Cavey, TreePennsylvania program director, said the grant supporting the work was awarded in 2024 and expressed confidence that funding for the fall plantings remained secure. 'Meadville will receive the other half of their trees,' she said. 'However, if we applied for this funding now in anticipation of a 2026 grant, I would be very cautious of anticipating that grant being accepted because it mentions environmental justice, it mentions disadvantaged communities, it mentions climate change — those kinds of things — and those words right now are huge red flags for this administration, unfortunately.'
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Carbondale to hold downtown cleanups this month
Carbondale is cleaning up its downtown this month with help from local students. With Earth Day two weeks away, the city's Shade Tree Commission plans to clean up a heavily traveled trail off Seventh Avenue on Saturday, followed by a collaboration with NeighborWorks Northeastern Pennsylvania to spruce up city businesses along Main and Church streets April 22. 'It's inviting. It makes you want to be there,' Mayor Michele Bannon said of cleaning up the downtown. 'It makes people proud.' The Carbondale Shade Tree Commission will start work at 9 a.m. Saturday for its Wurts Brothers Lane cleanup, Bannon said. The commission does cleanup projects throughout the town, including along Wurts Brothers Lane, which is a walking trail that connects Seventh Avenue to the shopping center on Eighth Avenue and provides a connection to the city's residential section, Bannon said. Students often use the trail to walk to school, but winter took its toll on the path, she said. The trail has a lot of litter and broken branches from trees, said Shade Tree Commission Chairwoman Joann Wall. So, the commission asked the Carbondale Area Chargers football team for help, Wall said. 'It teaches the children to take pride in their community,' she said. The commission has been cleaning the trail for about eight years, Wall said. For a larger downtown cleanup project, NeighborWorks and the city will work with Carbondale Area High School students April 22 to clean up the exteriors of city businesses, Bannon said. 'All the cleanups we do are based on developing community pride and just cleaning up our downtown and cleaning up our city,' Bannon said, adding with a laugh, 'We're hoping it's contagious.' Emily Arcaro, the community revitalization specialist for Carbondale at NeighborWorks, said she will have 16 honors students from Carbondale washing exterior windows and sweeping sidewalks at participating businesses. So far, about a dozen businesses have signed up, she said, explaining the offer is open to any business along Main Street or Church Street. It's not a professional cleaning service, but it is a way to engage with Carbondale businesses while also getting students out into their city's downtown and instilling a sense of community pride, Arcaro said. 'This is really students out with Windex doing their best to just give downtown a little bit of a facelift,' Arcaro said. NeighborWorks previously worked with 20 Carbondale seventh graders to clean up Memorial Park across from City Hall in the fall, and then they took a walk down Main Street to clean up leaves, garbage and debris along the curb cuts, inspiring the idea for a spring cleanup after the winter thaw, she said. 'I'm looking for ways to continue to bridge that gap between students … with their downtown and get the students to recognize and be happy about where they live, and get businesses also recognizing the benefits of the students,' she said. 'The goal here is to try to tie them both closer together and just have that sense of community.' So far, about a dozen businesses have signed up, and while distributing flyers about the cleanup, Arcaro said business owners were enthusiastic. If the Earth Day cleanup works out, Arcaro hopes to make it an annual event in the city while also holding other cleanups throughout the year. The business cleanup ties into both the city's Blueprint Communities program and Carbondale Core Neighborhood Plan, Bannon said. Carbondale is working with NeighborWorks on both projects. Carbondale was one of 10 communities across Pennsylvania to become 'Blueprint Communities' in April 2024 when it embarked on a free, year-and-a-half-long process to create a strategic plan to revitalize its downtown. The core neighborhood plan is a multimillion-dollar, 10-year project that aims to turn Carbondale into a destination with investments into infrastructure, recreation and revitalization. 'All of these events that we're doing, we're hoping builds the foundation for us to continue to do them in the future,' Bannon said. To participate in the Shade Tree Commission's trail cleanup, either stop by the trail at 9 a.m. Saturday or message Businesses interested in having their windows washed and sidewalks swept on Earth Day can contact Arcaro at carbondale@ or 570-558-2490.
