Friends of Grand Rapids Parks is the recipient of a 2013 Arbor Day Award in honor of its outstanding contribution to tree planting, conservation and stewardship, the Arbor Day Foundation announced today. Friends of Grand Rapids Parks will receive the Excellence in Urban Forest Leadership Award which is given to one exceptional organization whose work … More
Author Archives: Steve
Brewery Vivant sponsors and plants trees at Highland Park
On Saturday, October 20, local brewery, Brewery Vivant’s Monk Club, employees and community volutneers helped Friends of Grand Rapids Parks plant 20 trees in Highland Park. The tree grove was also sponsored by Brewery Vivant. “One of the core values we have at Brewery Vivant is to operate sustainably,” explained Kris Spaulding of Brewery Vivant. … More
Grand Rapids tree planting effort gets $70,000 federal grant from U.S. Forest Service
By Garret Ellison | [email protected] GRAND RAPIDS, MI — A West Michigan tree planting initiative designed to help minimize the impact of the invasive Emerald Ash Borer has received a $70,000 grant from the U.S. Forest Service. The allocation was announced on Friday, Oct. 11 as part of nearly $3 million in U.S. Environmental Protection … More
Mayor George Heartwell’s Climate Change Award funds new trees for Grand Rapids parks
By Emily Zoladz | [email protected] GRAND RAPIDS, MI–It was a chilly, colorful morning as Friends of Grand Rapids Parks planted 10 trees in Cheseboro Park on Merritt Street SE. The little park recently lost all of its shade to the Emerald Ash Borer and thanks to Mayor George Heartwell’s Mayors’ Climate Protection Award, new Sawtooth … More
WZZM profiles National NeighborWoods Month
Grand Rapids, MI (WZZM) – Did you know that October is National NeighborWoods Month? Hundreds of events all over the nation will be taking place throughout the month of October to celebrate trees across the U.S. Here in West Michigan, the Friends of Grand Rapids Parks are organizing different community efforts to educate the public on all things … More
Middleschooler maps most of Midtown Green
Special thanks to tree map user Chloeboo (username) for helping map most of Midtown Green. Chloeboo was able to earn volunteer credit for the project prior to entering City Middle School. Chloeboo identified, measured, categorized, and mapped over 30 trees in the park. Their effort earned them over 800 reputation points in the system. There … More
Keep a tape measure in your pocket
With the Tree Map in beta testing, I’ve been taking different opportunities to map trees around the city. Today I finally got around to editing the inaugural Mayor’s Tree of the Year. Thankfully a lot of the data was already in the tree map because of East Hill’s earlier mapping efforts to catalog the street … More
As temps rise, cities combat “heat island” effect.
National Public Radio September 4, 2012 Listen: as temps rise, cities combat “heat island” effect More than 20,000 high-temperature records have been broken so far this year in the United States. And the heat is especially bad in cities, which are heating up about twice as fast as the rest of the planet. High temperatures … More
Launching a new project.
When I started with Friends of Grand Rapids Parks in 2009, I was their first and only staff. I remember sitting down with some of the founding board members and community champions to talk about their hopes for the organization and what they saw as new opportunities for the community engagement. At some point during … More
Grand Rapids tree of the year chosen.
GRAND RAPIDS (WZZM) — A tree in the East Hills neighborhood is Grand Rapids’ Tree of the Year. Mayor George Heartwell gave the ash tree the distinction in honor of Arbor Day. The Urban Forestry Committee says the one tree alone captures 7,000 gallons of storm water each year and absorbs 1,200 pounds of carbon … More
