We are so very excited to announce that our grant application “Growing New London Trees” received full funding ($115,000) from Connecticut Department of Energy & Environmental Protection (DEEP) to support the urban forest in New London! The funding will enable us to hire an urban forest coordinator and plant 100 trees over the next two years! This will double the over 100 trees we have planted since our inception in 2018. As well as allow us to increase our community building and educational training. We are so thankful to Jess Jones from The Nature Conservancy in Connecticut for writing the grant applications and translating our ideas into a comprehensive vision for New London.
New London trees currently has 30 active members that regularly attend our monthly meetings at the public library downtown and collaborate with many organizations. In partnership with the city, we launched a pilot youth-educational training program called Growing Community and Trees, where we trained three youth while planting 20 trees in low-canopy neighborhoods. This summer, we are continuing this program as well as training two urban forestry interns funded through our partnership with Connecticut College. We take the success of these programs as demonstrative proof that our organization is ready to amplify our efforts through our capacity-building project Growing New London Trees.
