Grants of $25,000 for Agricultural Projects from TREE Fund

Tree Fund is open to applications for innovative research and technology transfer projects that have the potential of benefiting the everyday work of arborists through the John Z. Duling Grant Program. John Z. Duling Grants may be used to support exploratory work in the early stages of untested, but potentially transformative, research ideas and approaches. Examples may include the application of new approaches to research questions, or the application of new expertise involving novel disciplinary or interdisciplinary perspectives.

TREE Fund’s research priorities:

[1] Root and soil management: Promoting root development, protecting roots from injury, managing conflicts with infrastructure, improving existing soil, and/or use of other media for root growth and issues that arborists encounter regularly.

[2] Tree planting and establishment: Methods of ensuring survival and vigorous growth of trees after planting are of concern to arborists and the entire green industry. Arborists are increasingly dealing with problems that originate in, or could be avoided, during the planting process.

[3] Plant health care: Healthy plants have more effective defense systems, are better able to resist pests, and often require less life-time investment of resources for successful performance in the field. Improved understanding of natural and anthropogenic factors that impact plant health is most likely to lead to new pest/pathogen management strategies for use in the field.

[4] Risk assessment and worker safety: Practitioners face challenges when working in sites with live utility wires and whenever their work requires leaving the ground to attend to problem areas. Thus, research leading to improved equipment and work practices is also a high priority.

[5] Urban and community forest management: Trees offer significant economic and health benefits to their home communities, and maximizing these benefits requires an improved understanding of how urban forest ecosystems function, how they should be managed, and how they interact with people in communities at urban/rural interface.

The following types of projects are not funded:

[1] Grants to individuals.

[2] Projects that are primarily municipal tree surveys or assessments.

[3] Tree planting programs.

[4] Studies of individual tree species for the primary purpose of agricultural or timber/forest planting yield.

[5] Commercial tree or soil-related product testing primarily for the benefit of the company that manufactures the product.