Urban and Community Forestry Program

COMMUNITY DESIGN ASSISTANCE AVAILABLE TO 

RI COMMUNITIES and NON-PROFITS for Summer 2025

Assistance is being offered to RI municipalities and non-profits to develop conceptual designs to provide a vision and a target to improve community green space and provide a basis for pursuit of funding assistance.

The RIDEM-DFE Urban & Community Forestry program has partnered with the URI Department of Landscape Architecture’s Regenerative Community Design Lab (RCDL) to offer free services to successful applicants, through the attached application process. Three communities are anticipated to be assisted in the summer of 2025.

Successful applicants will receive the services and will commit to reporting their time, setting up a committee, meeting with RCDL staff and hosting 2 public review meetings of the designs. Once the final design has been received by the community, they will own and will be responsible for any implementation, funding, or use of the plan.

Applications will be accepted through Friday, April 18^th at 4 pm.  Please see the Request for Applications below for additional information and instructions to apply.  If you have any questions on the program or application process, please contact Lou Allard, Urban & Community Forestry Program Coordinator at robert.e.allard@dem.ri.gov.

RCDL Application PDF file, less than 1mbmegabytes

RCDL Announcement PDF file, less than 1mbmegabytes

Program Flier PDF file, about 2mbmegabytes

Urban and community forests are the trees, plants, and associated ecosystems located where people are - country roads, new developments, small towns or large cities.

While the goals of traditional forest management and urban forestry may be similar: to grow, harvest, and replant trees that are suitable for their location; the products from that management are quite different. Products from traditional forestry and silviculture are wood, building materials, paper and more, created from the trees grown in forests. The main products from urban forestry are trees that are healthy, live long, and are structurally sound, and the associated benefits created by trees that are growing in and around people and their infrastructure.

Questions? Contact DEM Division of Forest Environment's Urban and Community Forestry Program Coordinator Robert Allard, 401-537-4067.

U&C Forestry Grants

Tree Equity RI Grant Program

Tree City USA

Trees as Green Infrastructure

RI Arborist Info/Licenses

Trees and Storms

Tree Care and Maintenance

Forest Management for Communities

Trees for Climate and Health

The Urban and Community Forestry Program supports urban forestry in Rhode Island by

• Administering a cost-share federal grant program for municipalities, local governments, non-profits, educational groups and schools
• Providing technical and/or educational assistance regarding:
  - Community forest inventories, management plans, and tree ordinances
  - Grant project applications and implementation
  - Tree City USA, Tree Campus USA and Tree Line USA designations
  - Workshops for green industry professionals and Tree Wardens
  - RI Arborist licensing
• Supporting and partnering with the RI Tree Council to provide RI residents, civic and volunteer organizations and educational institutions with information and education about trees, as well as planting and maintenance, species selection information