The USDA Florida Forest Service has award the City of Orlando an Urban and Community Forestry grant to fund their second season of the Energy Saving Trees (Website) program.
This innovative online tool allows residents to order trees and have them shipped to their homes, free of charge. The website also tracks the energy savings, stormwater mitigation, air pollutants cleaned and carbon sequestered by trees sent through the program.
The contract cost for the fall program is $54,000 with $20,000 being paid by matching funds through the USDA grant and $34,000 being paid through City funds.
This is a one time expenditure with no ongoing costs.
This online tool differs from I-Tree (Website) which is a peer-reviewed software suite from the USDA Forest Service that provides urban and rural forestry analysis and benefits assessment tools. The i-Tree Tools help communities of all sizes to strengthen their forest management and advocacy efforts by quantifying the structure of trees and forests, and the environmental services that trees provide.
Urban and Community Forestry is a cooperative program of the US Forest Service that focuses on the stewardship of urban natural resources. With 80 percent of the nation's population in urban areas, there are strong environmental, social, and economic cases to be made for the conservation of green spaces to guide growth and revitalize city centers and older suburbs.
