2013 Mayor’s Urban Forestry Volunteer Award Winners

2013 Mayor’s Urban Forestry Volunteer Award Winners

Sponsored by the RNeighborWoods program, the Mayor’s Urban Forestry Volunteer Award was created to recognize amazing citizens, for outstanding contributions to Rochester’s urban forest. There are three categories for these awards including adult, youth and business.

2013 Mayor’s Urban Forestry Volunteer Award Winners

  • Adult: Jason Schilling
  • Business: Jim Whiting’s Nursery (Jim Whiting and Chris Graves)

These awards will be presented by Mayor Brede at the Environmental Awareness Month Proclamation, Tuesday, April 2, 10 am in the Rotunda of the Government Center.

Adult: Jason Schilling

Jason works at Mayo Clinic in a laboratory by day, but has been an advocate for neighborhood trees since 2008 when he moved to Rochester. He wanted to get involved in community tree plantings and Googled “tree planting Rochester MN” and discovered RNeighborWoods. He’s been a Citizen Forester and active volunteer in the program ever since, door knocking to encourage neighborhood involvement and serving as the volunteer committee chair for over four years. Jason also serves on the RNeighbors Board.

Why does he think the urban forest is important? “To be honest, aside from clean air and clean water and shade for our streets, sidewalks, and homes my motivation for protecting and growing urban forest is mostly personal. I actually like the sense of calm I feel when gazing up into a large elm tree canopy while walking to and from work.

I appreciate the song of a cardinal in a distant tree as I walk my daughter to school early in the morning and the soft rustle of leaves of a tree shaking in a summer breeze outside her window as I tuck her into bed at night. I relish the crisp yet soft crunch of leaves underfoot while strolling through the neighborhood in the fall. Each long winter, I’m inspired by a sentinel oak in a park nearby, draped in snow or ice-patiently waiting-for its time to bloom.

I guess you could say I enjoy the site, sound, and even smell of nature in this city where I live, work, and raise our family.  This is why the urban forest is important to me.”

Business: Jim Whiting’s Nursery (Jim Whiting and Chris Graves)

If you have ever stopped out at Whiting’s Nursery, on 19th Street NW, chances are you’ve already met Jim Whiting and Chris Graves.  They, and their dedicated staff at Whiting’s, have been key partners in the RNeighborWoods program since its inception.  Jim and Chris have worked closely each year with the RNeighborWoods committee and Rochester City Forester, Jacob Ryg, to ensure they get the large quantities and high quality trees needed for the community plantings.  Whiting’s maintains an inventory of over 4,000 trees on any given day, and sells over 30,000 trees annually, including supplying high quality trees at wholesale prices for RNeighborWoods plantings.

“We saw RNeighborWoods was a project that had big aspirations for the future”, said Jim Whiting. “We were just expanding into tree brokering, as RNW started planting trees.  We were able to meet the needs of RNW in terms of quantities and diversity, without sacrificing quality for price.” 

Chris Graves said, “RNeighborWoods has a good program to increase tree species diversity.  Diversity is important to sustain the urban forest through attacks by insects and diseases.  Diversity also gives a new look to the community, other than just more of the same ash and maple.  Whiting’s first became involved at the inception of the RNW program, when Jacob Ryg, City Forester, came out looking for a diverse palette of species for a planting project.  Whiting’s was, and is, interested in any beautification project for the City of Rochester.”

Whiting’s has been an annual sponsor for the t-shirts that volunteers receive on planting day and were a sponsor for the RNeighborWoods enclosed trailer that is essential to store tools used in community tree plantings.  In addition to helping find the best quality trees for planting (Whiting’s boasts a 1% replacement rate on the trees they plant), Whiting’s also help with watering, create layout plans for some plantings, and deliver some trees curbside the day of RNeighborWoods plantings. 

Think of how many trees are in Rochester neighborhoods’ boulevards, indirectly and directly because of the time and talents of Jason and Whiting’s Nursery. RNeighborWoods was founded in 2004. Since then we’ve planted 5,160 boulevard trees with the help of 4,101+ volunteers in Rochester neighborhoods. Rochester’s urban forest is greener and leafier thanks to all of the volunteers who help to plant trees in their neighborhood. “The newly planted trees will brighten Rochester by improving the environment, creating jobs, enhancing our quality of life, and providing opportunities for recreation,” said Chris Graves. 

Be sure to come out and lend a hand on Saturday, April 27 at our next big tree planting. The goal that morning? To plant 200 trees.

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