Tree Fund: Inviting Applicants for Jack Kimmel International Grant Program

The Tree Fund is seeking applications for its Jack Kimmel International Grant Program to provide much needed funding to arboriculture and urban forestry researchers all over the world.

This grant is administered by TREE Fund, with participation from the Canadian TREE Fund in the evaluation process.

Priority Areas

• Root and soil management: Many urban tree problems originate below ground. Promoting root development, protecting roots from injury, managing conflicts with infrastructure, improving existing soil, and/or use of other media for root growth are issues that arborists encounter regularly.
• 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.
• 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.
• Risk assessment and worker safety: Safety is a major concern to practicing arborists, especially as incomplete knowledge of potential hazards can be a life-or-death issue for both tree workers and the public they serve. Detection and prevention of structural degradation of trees via decay and other factors are especially important. However, practitioners face additional 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.
• 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 and at the urban/rural interface.

Grant Information

• Grant award amounts are limited to a maximum of $10,000 and will vary depending upon the adjudged value of the project relative to the needs of the arboriculture community.
• Projects are expected to be completed within one to two years.

Eligibility Criteria

• TREE Fund does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, creed, gender, sexual orientation, disability or national or ethnic origin.
• Current trustees of TREE Fund or any member of the family of any such trustee are ineligible to receive grants from TREE Fund.
• These grants are available to researchers whose work is primarily outside of the United States.

How to Apply

Applicants should send an email containing a brief (no more than 100 words) description of project title and concept at the address given on the website.

For more information, please visit Tree Fund.