Tree Pittsburgh Announces Public Meetings for the Urban Forest Master Plan
Tree Pittsburgh needs your input--and your neighbors', co-workers', friends', and relatives' input,--for the Urban Forest Master Plan, which will impact the future of trees and planting in the City of Pittsburgh. Participants who come to the public meetings will learn the details of the state of Pittsburgh's urban forest, and will provide detailed input about tree protection, maintenance, and planting.
All meetings are free and open to the public, and refreshments will be served. The meetings will be informative, interactive, and most of all, fun! Tree Pittsburgh needs your help--so please attend a meeting and bring a friend (or three). We hope to see you there.
Community Planning Meeting:
EAST
Monday January 23rd
Union Project
801 N. Negley Avenue 15206
5:30 - 7:30PM
Community Planning Meeting: NORTH
Tuesday January 24th
Children's Museum
10 Children's Way 15212
5:30 - 7:30PM
Community Planning Meeting: SOUTH
Wednesday January 25th
WYEP Community Broadcast Center
67 Bedford Square 15203
5:30 - 7:30PM
Community Planning Meeting: WEST
Monday February 13th,
Banksville Shelter in Banksville Park (see a map)
5:30 - 7:30PM
oh! and we are trying to collect over 1000 surveys from folks telling us what they think about Pittsburgh's trees, and how they are maintained and funded. IT WILL ONLY TAKE FOUR MINUTES I SWEAR
please fill it out, and you can win a $100 gift card to giant eagle!
http://www.surveybuilder.com/s/LaaSCle5oAA?source_id=3&source_type=web
caitlin, that is a really stunning photo. kudos to the photographer, and thank you for sharing it. (and thank you for posting info and working on this awesome project too). I filled out the survey.
The thing that bugs me most about the trees in the city is the way they are hacked to pieces every *mumble* years to protect the utility lines that should be buried anyway. Most new developments get it right and bury their lines. It just kills me when a beautiful tree gets to some arbitrary size and someone essentially cuts it in half down the middle. I learned it from my grandmother - as a young woman she happened to be home the day they were getting an electric line put in, she found out they were going through a tree on her property (cut it down), and proceeded to stand in the way and correct them at high volume until they gave in and ran it to a different corner on the house. Respect trees, and don't be intimidated by men with power tools.
Without trees we might as well live in Pheonix but with hills and nastier weather. Blech.
Ha, that is definitely one of the number one things I hear about trees in pgh--the utility complaint.
To be honest, the utility company is federally regulated to prune trees a certain distance away from wires. So, to do that, they prune them very extremely once every four years---so they start to grow back just when they have to come back and do it again.
Ideally this will no longer happen--because proper planning of tree placement is being used--tall trees should not be planted under wires--only small growing ones.
unfortunately, this also means we would have a city filled with very small, shorter lived trees, rather than larger ones...
oh and the photographer is Joey Kennedy 
His photo was also used in the P-G article today! :http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12017/1203969-294-0.stm
hmm... planning our utilities around trees would be a better option.
Been thinking about it more, and I think that's honestly my favorite picture of Pittsburgh ever. It totally puts it in a wonderful light - and is a single snapshot reason for why trees are so important and what they can do for the city. Remove the tree, and it's just a nice picture of the point from far away, just sky steel and water. With the tree, it's alive.
Survey done.
Filled out the survey.
Also, the tree in front of our house was pruned by a utility this very morning. $#@%&^!
Survey completed.
@ejwme - yeah, thanks for pointing out how awesome that photo is, it seems to be painted with light. Inspiration.
@ caitlin - What is a TreeTender, exactly? What responsibilities? I hope the title "TreeTender" is correct, the name didn't stick after I exited the survey.
Tree Tenders are folks who have taken a day-long class with us and gained a deeper knowledge about trees, tree planting, care, pruning, etc.
Tree Tenders often take the lead in organizing plantings and tree care days, and are people we ask volunteers to defer to if they have questions.
Becoming a tree tender makes you much more informed about trees in the city and all that goes into getting them in the right of way! I highly recommend becoming one! And not just because I teach the class
schedule here:
http://www.treepittsburgh.org/become-tree-tender
if that doesnt work, let me know... we have been having some website issues today
ah, perhaps that explains why the treepittsburgh news page got filtered as "malicious content" by my work firewall. Or my filter is overly sensitive as usual.
Treetender classes are now on my calander, that sounds like fun 
Bump. Those in the East, tonight's your night.
