CHARM CITY'S ECO-WORKFORCE.Civic Works, Baltimore's youth service corps, and AMERICAN FORESTS American Forests is a nonprofit conservation organization that promotes healthy forests and urban tree planting. The organization was established in 1875 as the American Forestry Association, by physician/horticulturist John Aston Warder and a group of like-minded citizens are partnering to destroy the myth that ecological and economic vitality cannot coexist. Working in inner-city Baltimore in collaboration with businesses, scientific researchers, communities, and governments, the two groups are creating a workforce to handle the unique needs of today's urban forests. The project, part of AMERICAN FORESTs' new urban-rural community initiative, has as its goal building regional workforces that cohesively restore lands from urban cores to the development-threatened rural fringe. The Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), independent agency of the U.S. government, with headquarters in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1970 to reduce and control air and water pollution, noise pollution, and radiation and to ensure the safe handling and has awarded the partners a $200,000 brownfield job-training grant to instruct this new workforce. Urban foresters traditionally have focused on street tree pruning and park maintenance, but a lack of inner-city jobs, an excess of contaminated contaminated, v 1. made radioactive by the addition of small quantities of radioactive material. 2. made contaminated by adding infective or radiographic materials. 3. an infective surface or object. vacant land, and depleted de·plete tr.v. de·plet·ed, de·plet·ing, de·pletes To decrease the fullness of; use up or empty out. [Latin d urban forests in old industrial cities such as Baltimore have created the opportunity to build a new ecosystem restoration Humans depend greatly on ecosystem services. These services vary greatly and include such things as erosion control, water and air purification, food, recreation, a list that could go on endlessly. workforce. The workforce will have the skills to handle uniquely urban situations: dealing with hazardous materials, rebuilding native plant habitats on unusable land, and planting trees for phytoremediation phy·to·re·me·di·a·tion n. The use of plants and trees to remove or neutralize contaminants, as in polluted soil or water. phytoremediation See under bioremediation. , which uses trees and plants to clean contaminated soils. Throughout the program, Civic Works will train underemployed un·der·em·ployed adj. 1. Employed only part-time when one needs and desires full-time employment. 2. Inadequately employed, especially employed at a low-paying job that requires less skill or training than one possesses. individuals to supply skilled labor for this "green collar" industry. AMERICAN FORESTS, together with the Communities Committee of the Seventh American Forest Congress, will work to build market demand through partnerships with landowners, businesses, and governments. The partners also will develop restoration enterprises and hope to use the project to influence national policy. "The local and national benefits to urban communities and forests could be monumental," says Ian Leahy, AMERICAN FoRESTs' urban-rural projects manager. Similar pilots are planned for Seattle and Pittsburgh. |
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