August 30, 2024
Over the summer, intern Lila Turner explored the impact of VT UCF's grants on the landscape and in communities since the program was established in 1991. Over 1,000 individual grants have supported tree planting, tree maintenance, planning, outreach, and other efforts to create and sustain healthy urban forests in over 190 Vermont communities to the tune of over $3,000,000.
Lila spent the summer visiting nine communities that have received various VT UCF grants over the years: Burlington, Waterbury, Montpelier, Barre, Brattleboro, Rutland City, Middlebury, Shelburne, and Johnson. She met with key local urban and community forestry leaders and volunteers, learned about the impact that these grants have had on their communities, and took photographs to document trees and projects. Lila then developed an ArcGIS Storymap to highlight these site visits and demonstrate how urban and community forestry efforts have evolved over the past three decades across the state.
$3 million over 30 years: A Storymap