NYC “GREEN” STUDENTS LEARN SAFE TREE CARE SKILLS FROM THE TREE FUND

On December 10, more than 30 New York City youth in the MillionTreesNYC Training Program learned and practiced safe and proper tree felling skills on Randall's Island — including notch cuts, limbing and bucking techniques, and safety precautions — on large pedestal-mounted logs and downed limbs with experts from the sponsoring companies of the Tree Research and Education Endowment Fund (TREE Fund).

TREE Fund and its sponsors Asplundh Tree Expert Co., Bartlett Tree Experts, The Davey Tree Expert Company and STIHL Inc., have formed a public-private partnership with NYC Parks to offer a free, ten-day tree educational program to MillionTreesNYC Training Program participants. The educational series teaches skills useful for green jobs that involve tree planting, pruning, ecological restoration, gardening and stewardship of urban ecosystems.

The MillionTreesNYC Training Program, managed by the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation and New York Restoration Project, provides paid on-the-job forestry, ecological restoration and horticulture training to unemployed young adults not enrolled in school or on a career path. Created as one of the more than 40 innovative programs of the Mayor's Center for Economic Opportunity (CEO) aimed to reduce the number of New Yorkers living in poverty, the program recruits participants from New York City Housing Authority campuses, the Department of Youth and Community Development's CEO programs and from local community-based organizations. The MillionTreesNYC Training Program is a pilot program of the Mayor's Fund to Advance New York City.

MillionTreesNYC is one of Mayor Bloomberg's PlaNYC initiatives to establish a healthier, more sustainable New York City. Through MillionTreesNYC, the City of New York and its public, private, and non-profit partners will plant one million new trees throughout the city by 2017. The MillionTreesNYC Training Program will help to assure that trees, new and old, are cared for by trained citizens and arborists.

Contact: Vickie Karp/ Jesslyn Moser (212) 360-1311