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	Become a Friend of ACT Do you like clean air, green streets, and healthy neighborhoods? We do! ACT member organizations engage thousands of volunteers nationwide to transform cities for the better. Together, members of Alliance for Community Trees have planted 7.8 million trees in cities, with help from 450,000 volunteers. We're proud of our collective achievements, but there is much more work to be done to make our cities healthy, sustainable, and successful. Continue reading Become a Friend of ACT » Volunteer of the Year Win a trip to Washington, DC for one of your volunteers! College Park, MD (August 1, 2009)- The Alliance for Community Trees (ACT) is pleased to announce it is accepting nominations for Volunteer of the Year. This is an opportunity for ACT members to share inspirational accounts of volunteers in action and have them gain national recognition for their local contributions! This award is open to any individual (board member, community organizer, pro bono consultant, etc.) whose volunteer efforts have made a contribution to urban forestry by improving community trees and the neighborhoods which they are in. Continue reading Volunteer of the Year » Synthetic tree claims to catch carbon in the air London (June 22, 2009)- Scientists in the United States are developing a "synthetic tree" capable of collecting carbon around 1,000 times faster than the real thing. As the wind blows though plastic "leaves," the carbon is trapped in a chamber, compressed and stored as liquid carbon dioxide. The technology is similar to that used to capture carbon from flue stacks at coal-fired power plants, but the difference is that the "synthetic tree" can catch carbon anytime, anywhere. Continue reading Synthetic tree claims to catch carbon in the air » New Chief for U.S. Forest Service Washington, DC (June 17, 2009)- Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced that Tom Tidwell will serve as the new Chief for the U.S. Forest Service. "Tom Tidwell's 32 years of experience in our forests and impressive track record of collaboration and problem-solving will help us tackle the great challenges ahead," said Vilsack. Continue reading New Chief for U.S. Forest Service » Guidelines for Eco Friendly Service Projects By David Flanigan Washington, DC (June 15, 2009)- Are you planning a service project and want to make sure it has a big impact on the community and a low impact on the environment? Do you wish there was a guide that could help you plan for an eco-friendly service project? Well you are in luck! KaBOOM! and The Home Depot Foundation are excited to present the first comprehensive guidelines on how to make your service project as eco-friendly as possible. Continue reading Guidelines for Eco Friendly Service Projects » Green Solutions welcomes Greenway Habitat speaker Monmouth, IL (June 12, 2009)- Dr. Michael Giudici, a cardiologist with Genesis Medical Center in Davenport, is well known for his skill as a physician but has also gained fame in the region for planting trees and being a strong proponent of urban reforestry. In the last 29 years, Giudici has planted thousands of trees in the Quad Cities area and won several awards personally and for the group of volunteer arborists he started called Greenway Habitat. Continue reading Green Solutions welcomes Greenway Habitat speaker » PSA Campaign Debut Coincides with National Get Outdoors Day New York, NY (June 10, 2009)- Children in the U.S. spend fifty percent less time outdoors than they did twenty years ago, according to the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. In an effort to encourage children and their parents to re-connect with nature, the U.S. Forest Service is joining the Ad Council today to launch a national multimedia public service advertising (PSA) campaign. Continue reading PSA Campaign Debut Coincides with National Get Outdoors Day » Nonprofit works to restore green canopy to Detroit By David Runk Detroit, MI (June 8, 2009)- A batch of trees that will soon be planted on a wild, overgrown patch of land near a Detroit neighborhood is expected to be a step toward bringing back a vibrant, green canopy to the Motor City. The nonprofit group Greening of Detroit is pushing urban reforestation- even during a tough economy- with projects as diverse as a Christmas tree farm, neighborhood gardens and thousands of tree plantings along busy streets. "The need is expanding, so we're trying to keep pace," said Rebecca Salminen Witt, the organization's president. Continue reading Nonprofit works to restore green canopy to Detroit » Up With Trees Receives National NeighborWoods Grant for Tree Program Tulsa, OK (June 5, 2009)- Tulsa nonprofit Up With Trees has received a $7,686 grant from the Alliance for Community Trees (ACT) and The Home Depot Foundation. This challenge grant is part of the National NeighborWoods Program, made possible with support of The Home Depot Foundation. Continue reading Up With Trees Receives National NeighborWoods Grant for Tree Program » EPA Grants $1 Million to Green Atlanta BeltLine Brownfields By Environmental News Service Atlanta, GA (June 2, 2009)- The City of Atlanta today received a $1 million grant to clean up brownfields sites along the Atlanta BeltLine and other redevelopment corridors, a project that Trees Atlanta has been closely involved with. At a ceremony at Historic Fourth Ward Park in Atlanta, U.S. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson announced the grant, saying the funds will be used to clean up 10 local sites contaminated by hazardous chemicals or pollutants, which will be restored to help fuel the local economy. This move will help spur redevelopment, secure jobs, and create greenspace. Continue reading EPA Grants $1 Million to Green Atlanta BeltLine Brownfields » ACT Member Report 2008 College Park, MD (June 1, 2009)- The Alliance for Community Trees (ACT) is engaging in a comprehensive process to identify national and local successes in urban and community forestry. The idea is threefold. First, is to understand local successes and provide some measure of benchmarking for community organizers. Second, is to have a clear view of how local successes are being amplified as part of national trends and progress (to see the forest for the trees, if you will). Third, is to combine local success and national trends into a "Greenprint for the Future" of urban and community forestry, an agenda that can be pursued by both national and local organizations committed to city trees. Continue reading ACT Member Report 2008 » Tree Planting in Southern California Connects Community with Environment Note from ACT: Reader's Digest has the largest print circulation of all U.S. periodicals, so this positive media about the urban forest- and Citizen Foresters- is good news for our growing national movement. Hopefully ACT members will be able to use this in fundraising and volunteer efforts. By David Hochman Los Angeles, CA (June 1, 2009)- Growing trees in the concrete jungle brings neighbors benefits beyond beauty. Your street is definitely naked," Andy Lipkis was telling me as he squinted in the blazing sun at the concrete expanse outside our house in the Del Rey neighborhood of Los Angeles. "It's like someone said, 'Trees? Nah, don't need 'em here.'" Continue reading Tree Planting in Southern California Connects Community with Environment » The Dirt: Mapping the urban forest By Joe Eaton and Ron Sullivan, page G4 San Francisco, CA (May 31, 2009)- Inspiration often strikes in unusual places. For Amber Bieg, a volunteer with Friends of the Urban Forest, a nonprofit that promotes the greening of San Francisco, it hit as she was planting street trees in five years ago. "It occurred to me how great it would be to enter all the information about the trees I had just planted into a database so it could be shared," she recalls. Continue reading The Dirt: Mapping the urban forest » Shade-tree mechanics By Debbie Arrington Sacramento, CA (May 30, 2009)- Pamela Frickmann drives down the streets of Natomas every day. On block after block, she spots old friends, putting down roots. "I've worked this neighborhood for so long now, I can monitor how they're doing," she says. "It's amazing how fast they grow." Frickmann works as a community forester. These leafy friends are trees, providing much-needed shade to homes. That's particularly important in a new neighborhood like Natomas, former farmland turned sprawling subdivision. Continue reading Shade-tree mechanics » Street Trees for Winchester By Mindy Arbo Winchester, MA (May 29, 2009)- One of the reasons many of us choose to live in Winchester is that it is such a green town. But we all know streets that are less green, on which buildings and signs, utility poles, mailboxes and fire hydrants stand out all too clearly, without the benefit of a visually softening canopy of green. Continue reading Street Trees for Winchester » Tree Rules OK in Zone Outside City Limit By John Tedesco San Antonio, TX (May 28, 2009)- For years, developers have tried to ignore San Antonio's tree preservation ordinance on the city's outskirts. And for just as long, City Attorney Michael Bernard and other officials have insisted San Antonio has a right to protect trees in a 5-mile buffer zone outside city limits known as the extraterritorial jurisdiction, or ETJ. Continue reading Tree Rules OK in Zone Outside City Limit » Grant For Tree Planting And Stewardship By Ken Knight Goleta, CA (May 27, 2009)- Goleta Valley Beautiful today announced that it will receive a $10,000 grant from the Alliance for Community Trees (ACT) and The Home Depot Foundation. This challenge grant is part of the National NeighborWoods Program, a nationwide initiative that engages the public in meaningful hands-on action to produce tangible improvements to community health through tree planting and stewardship. Continue reading Grant For Tree Planting And Stewardship » Goleta Valley Beautiful Receives $10,000 Grant for Tree-Planting Project By Ken Knight Goleta, CA (May 27, 2009)- Goleta Valley Beautiful announced Tuesday that it will receive a $10,000 grant from the Alliance for Community Trees and The Home Depot Foundation. The challenge grant is part of the National NeighborWoods Program, made possible through the support of The Home Depot Foundation. The group will use the money to plant 70 native shade trees on four affordable housing properties. Continue reading Goleta Valley Beautiful Receives $10,000 Grant for Tree-Planting Project » Philadelphians' efforts to create a green, sustainable city are beginning to bear fruit By Raymond Simon Philadelphia, PA (May 27, 2009)- On April 29, 2009 Mayor Michael Nutter released "Greenworks Philadelphia," his framework for transforming Philadelphia into America's greenest city. Then, on May 15, the Energy Coordinating Agency graduated its first class of low-skilled workers retrained for green-collar jobs. Philadelphia's initial attempts to transform itself have been so successful that United States Representatives Robert Brady, Chaka Fattah, and Allyson Schwartz would like them to serve as a model for towns and cities across America. Continue reading Philadelphians' efforts to create a green, sustainable city are beginning to bear fruit »