This is where the TreeKeeper Program hopes to pioneer the way.   Starting as a collaboration of TreeBaltimore (City) and NGO’s (ranging from the new Baltimore Tree Trust, to the classics of Parks and People, the Baltimore Forestry Board to Blue Water Baltimore, Baltimore Green Space, etc. etc. the list goes on and on…) this program’s largest goal is to educate the citizens not only on the benefits of trees, but training them to become “tree experts.”  By allowing our new model to evolve with each given class and collaborating with not only local partners, but state and federal partners in our presentations, we can keep the information fresh and informative.

So if you are interested in how trees effect our local ecosystem and how they fit into the past, present and future history of Baltimore  be sure not to miss the first class “101: Trees & Baltimore,” on March 7th from 6-9 pm at the Vollmer Center [4915 Greenspring Ave.].  The 102 class is an educational piece on ‘Science of Trees’ with a hands on tree planting demonstration that will have you on your way as a ‘tree expert’ in no time, this class will be held March 16th [same location as 101] from noon til 3pm.

TreeKeepers unite!

In Baltimore, for the first time since I can truly remember we had two sports teams to be excited about!  How about dem O’s?  And while the Raven’s are suffering a few setbacks due to injuries, they are perched at 5-2 in a lackluster AFC.  So we have reasons in this town to be excited, despite Sunday’s shellacking.

Get outside, enjoy the crisp autumn air, take a hike in one of the numerous great parks that Baltimore City has to offer, take a walk around your neighborhood, just go outside and enjoy being in nature.  Watch the leaves change color, fall from their home amongst the branches to the ground where it will decompose and continue the cycle of life.  There is beauty everywhere, in the squirrel collecting for winter, the kids carving their pumpkins, the smell of the seasons changing.  There is nothing like fall, and like the outfits we must begin to adhere, we must layer our perspectives to the future.  For as the bumper stickers say, “TREES ARE THE ANSWER.”  And the question is, how do we make our futures brighter?  Our children’s future’s brighter?  What is the easiest, most fiscally responsible way to improve the world that we live in?  Trees.

So please be sure to come out to a planting or a give-away this season!  Dates are much more updated on the Facebook page, but I am attempting to increase the amount of information I update on this site, as well.  Happy Fall everyone!

Anyway, lets not skip ahead to far into the future, lets enjoy the summer!!  Come on out to your local Park and take a dip in the swimming pool, or do what I do and lay out with a book under a tree and enjoy the nature, under the shade of a glorious tree.

Ps. I am headed to Europe in a few weeks, hopefully I will update before I head out!  If not, perhaps while I am on the road..

As spring is winding down, slowly but surely the nursery is starting to empty.  It brings upon a bittersweet euphoria.  I am extremely happy that 80 hour weeks our behind us, the trees now all have new homes, and this City is a little greener.  But an empty nursery, comes with this melancholy feeling.  Call me an “empty nester” if you must.

This planting season had its ups and downs, highs and lows, but it will definitely be one that I remember for the rest of my life.  We did good kids, we did good…

Until next planting season, keep watering those trees!

For as of this moment, everything that TreeBaltimore plants in this City will be, in a way, a living monument to Tasha (and everyone and everything that is right with this world).  I already planned to spend my life dedicated to the cause of greening this City that I love.  But until now, as the Tom Petty song says, I was truly a ‘rebel without a cause.’  I wanted to green, to green, not that there is anything wrong with that.  But now, my life mission and the meaning behind the work I do at TreeBaltimore, has a cause.  It has a root and I will make that root flourish.  This city will be covered in trees when I am done.  Tasha will be a part of every single one.

To anyone that has lost love and tried to turn it in to someting…anything, that matters, this program (TreeBaltimore) is here, it is for the ones we have lost, it is here for the ones that are still here, it is for the ones that aren’t yet here.  We will leave our mark, and we will leave it proud.

This is our world, this is our city, let’s do our best to change it for the better.  It’s what Tasha would have us do, it’s what any of us would have us do.  So join me, join us, in celebrating life.

To most, April is a time of rejuvenation.  Grass is green, trees are putting out leaves, flowers are starting to pop out of the ground…

But to us in the Green sector, April is 80 hour weeks of planning, planting, and getting dirty.  Don’t get me wrong, I love it.  I don’t mean to come off as bitter.  I take working 12+ hour days over the lull of sitting behind a desk, awaiting the demise of winter.  Most of us do.  That’s why it’s months like April that we thrive on.  The craziness, zaniness, green-i-ness is what makes the long hours worth it.

It is Green Week (baltimoregreenworks.com for events), and it kicked off with Ecofest on Saturday.  Coming straight from a tree planting where over a 100 people showed up to help plant trees, to a festival dedicated to greening (where we gave away hundreds of FREE trees), was just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the month of April!

Thursday, I was on the news promoting TreeBaltimore and Green Week.  At Ecofest, people were coming up to me and asking if I was the guy on the news that was talking about the event.  A few even said, it was the reason they were there.  That was pretty cool and made the long day that was my Thursday, well worth it.

Again, this is not a post to complain about long hours, getting dirty, or working hard.  This is just a reminder, that the trees you drive by everyday didn’t just show up.  It took a lot of blood, sweat and determination of your buddies in the green community.

So this April, don’t only hug a tree, hug a tree planter!

-c

This City is my life.  I left for a few years to get a Forestry degree from West Virginia University, but came back right after graduation.  You see, while I love this City, my passion is the outdoors.  That is why, I have the perfect job.  I am the Operations Manager for TreeBaltimore.  I get to help bring the outdoors to Baltimore City, by planting trees and increasing the tree canopy.

TreeBaltimore, is a program designed to increase the tree canopy in Baltimore City.  But TreeBaltimore is so much more than that.  TreeBaltimore is about improving the air we breath, the water we drink, and more importantly the community in which we all live.

Every tree planting that I am a part of, I amazed of the number of volunteers that come out to plant, the community members that stick their head out to see how they can help, and most importantly the dedication of everyone involved.  People that know me like to joke by saying, “This is Charlie, he ‘is’ TreeBaltimore.”  But that’s not true, not even remotely.  TreeBaltimore isn’t a person, it’s a movement.  And it involves all of us.  Whether you are just reading this blog and getting informed/spreading the word, or you are out planting trees, or maybe you just removed some vines off an old tree in your backyard.  We are all helping forward the mission of TreeBaltimore.  We are all helping beautify, educate, green, and thus, improving this city that we love.

Most people see trees everyday and think nothing of it.  They don’t think about the numerous benefits, nor the time, effort and energy that went in to that beautiful tree.  The planning, the planting, the dedication and maintenance that growing each tree takes.  It is our job as part of TreeBaltimore to let people know of what WE did to get that tree to where it is.  It is our job to green this City and share the plethora of benefits these living, breathing monuments give us with the City in which we live.

We are, TreeBaltimore.

The first year strategy focuses on engaging citizens and community groups. It involves intensive, targeted outreach to a cluster of sixteen neighborhoods located east of the York Road corridor and the neighborhoods of Remington, Charles Village and Coldstream Homestead Montebello. Residents are being reached through multiple media outlets such as bus ads, street banners, door hangtags and lawn signs. There are also participatory neighborhood tree walks with experts, free tree-giveaways and delivery and planting of trees at homes, schools, businesses and along the right-of-way.