The Effect of Trees on Crime in Portland, Oregon Authors Geoffrey H. Donovan, USDA Forest Service Jeffrey P. Prestemon, USDA Forest Service   Many people already know that city trees are highly desirable to make a neighborhood more attractive. It is common knowledge that shade from trees keeps temperatures on the ground cooler, can help buildings lower their overall energy usage, and their roots absorb storm water runoff efficiently. What people may not be familiar with is that trees also…

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On Saturday, April 24, over 500 neighbors, youth, and other community volunteers worked together to plant 500 trees in one morning, a record number of trees in one planting for the RNeighborWoods program.     Currently there are 27,720 vacant boulevard tree spaces throughout Rochester neighborhoods, out of a total of 56,779 spaces. The city is currently at less than a half of capacity and each year 500-900 boulevard trees are removed to disease or damage. RNeighborWoods is doing our…

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Congratulations to the Homestead Neighborhood for being the winners of the tree grant for fall of 2010.  Their neighborhood came together on October 9, 2010 at 9 am and planted 20 new trees. Here’s text from their grant appliation: “Our neighborhood was established in the 1940’s and is a small quiet neighborhood tucked between OMC hospital, Homestead park and the RCTC campus nature preserve. Our neighborhood is aging, and much of our tree stock is reaching the end of it’s life….

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                                    Trees make good neighbors. Since its creation in 2004, the grassroots RNeighborWoods program has organized 1,965 volunteers to plant 2,239 trees on Rochester boulevards. These trees provide multiple ecological and other public benefits including reducing Rochester’s carbon footprint. This fall the City of Rochester, RNeighbors, and RPU is offering a grant for a winning neighborhood to receive free boulevard trees. Announcing the RNeighborWoods Tree Grant! We have 20 trees that will all be planted in a deserving neighborhood by the neighbors! You…

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Rochester has been selected in a two year community preparedness study by the University of Minnesota’s Department of Forest Resources in order to evaluate the impact that the invasive Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) will have on our community. The inventorying of trees helps determine the risk to our urban forest. Rochester is one of six ecoregions selected for the project, which is performed by trained volunteers, due to the size of our community and our history of being a “solid…

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We never said we could control the weather. That was certainly apparent at the spring 2010 RNeighborWoods Community Tree Planting. It had rained the entire night before the big day and each of the planting holes was filled with water. But Rochester volun-trees are hearty and came out, dug in, and planted 500 trees. On Saturday, April 24, over 500 neighbors, youth, and other community volunteers worked together to plant 500 trees in one morning, a record number of trees…

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Photo: On a very windy May Day 2010, all ages in the Cimarron neighborhood helped the RNeighborWoods team plant 20 new Ginkgo trees.     At RNeighbors, we know that trees make good neighbors. That is why we partner with the City and the Park and Rec Department to offer the RNeighborWoods Tree grant for a winning neighborhood to receive free boulevard trees in the spring and fall. This time around there were two winning neighborhoods, both in the NW part…

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