Building Bridges Initiative grant – Sep 15

Posted by Tree Research and Education Endowment Fund on August 9, 2022

TREE Fund invites LOIs for Bob Skiera Memorial Fund Building Bridges Initiative grant program

The Tree Research and Education Endowment Fund (TREE Fund) works to support the discovery and dissemination of new knowledge in arboriculture and urban forestry.

To that end, the fund is inviting applications for its Bob Skiera Memorial Fund Building Bridges Initiative grant program. Bob Skiera was an urban forestry pioneer known communicating the needs and benefits of the urban forest and helped build bridges of trust and cooperation between urban foresters and other urban planning and management professionals. He was a past president of the International Society of Arboriculture and the Wisconsin Arborist Association, served memorably as a Milwaukee City Forester, and is a member of the Wisconsin Forestry Hall of Fame.

Established jointly by the TREE Fund, the Skiera Family, Wisconsin Arborist Association, and the International Society of Arboriculture, The Bob Skiera Memorial Fund now provides financial support for the “Building Bridges Initiative,” which is intended to help arborists and urban foresters communicate the value of trees and urban forests through engagement via collaborative research and other projects with public works officials, risk assessment professionals, civil engineers, wildlife researchers, soil scientists, and others. The maximum award value of grants under the initiative is $30,000, with $25,000 provided annually by the Bob Skiera Memorial Fund and $5,000 provided annually by the John White Memorial Fund.

In 2022, the Building Bridges Initiative grant(s) will be focused on research to facilitate or engage interactions between urban forest managers, arborists, and other professionals committed to maximizing the value/use of the urban forest resource. Suggested areas of investigation might include quantitative and/or qualitative analysis of urban forest benefits to humans and communities, policy formation and program implementation, “Nature-Based Solutions,” and ecosystem services.

TREE Fund invites research proposals and applications from a wide range of academic and technical disciplines, both qualitative and quantitative.

One-hundred-word letters of inquiry will be accepted between August 1, 2022, and September 15, 2022, and selected applicants will be invited to submit a full proposal by October 1, 2022.

For complete program guidelines and application instructions, see the Tree Research and Education Endowment Fund website.

Deadline: September 15, 2022 (Letters of Inquiry)