2012 Spring Record Breaking Community Tree Planting
What do you get when you have 1,200 trees, 500+ volunteers, some soggy, clay-based soil and 4 miles of empty neighborhood boulevards? You get a muddy morning, lots of hard work, tired volunteers and tree-lined streets that will benefit NW Rochester for decades to come. On May 5, over 500 volun-trees showed up to eager and willing to help break our past record (set in spring of 2011) of planting 1,000 boulevard trees in one morning with 450 neighbors.
In order to diversify our urban forest we planted:
Ginkgo
Swamp White Oak
Turkish Filbert
Yellowwood
Ornamental Pear
Kentucky Coffeetree
China Snow Lilac
Ft. Nair Buckeye
Honeylocust
Autumn Blaze Pear
Accolade Elm
Prospector Elm
London
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Up By Roots Workshop

Register Now or learn more by viewing the Up By Roots flyer.
RAW is hosting the Up By Roots workshop featuring James Urban, author of Up By Roots: Healthy Trees and Soils for the Built Environment.
June 28,2012
Rochester Community Technical College (RCTC), the University Center Rochester
Up By Roots is a one-day workshop highlighting the principles of soil science and their use in facilitating the growth of healthy trees and developing water-efficient landscapes. This workshop includes lectures and field work intended to introduce the underlying scientific principles guiding tree biology and soil-water relations. It is only through a healthy respect for these guiding
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Join Mayor Brede for Trash Mountain

Photo: The 2011 Trash Mountain piled up at Waste Management.
Have you noticed the sudden appearance of green trash bags and blue recycling bags along roadsides, at parks, and in the hands of litter pickers? This year, over 3,000 volunteers trolled for litter at over 200 locations in Rochester during the 6th annual A Litter Bit Better! city-wide clean-up event.
How much litter and recycling was plucked from our City grounds?
Join Mayor Ardell Brede at the big weigh-in at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, May 1st at the Waste Management scale house in Rochester (6670 11th Ave SW). See this year’s “Trash Mountain” and
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RNeighborWoods Receives National Award From the Arbor Day Foundation
Nebraska City, Neb. (April 24, 2012) – RNeighborWoods is the recipient of a 2012 Arbor Day Award in honor of its outstanding contribution to tree planting, conservation and stewardship, the Arbor Day Foundation announced today.
The Rochester, Minnesota-based RNeighborWoods is one of 16 individuals and organizations being recognized by the Foundation at the annual Arbor Day Awards. The ceremony will be held at Lied Lodge & Conference Center, located at Arbor Day Farm in Nebraska City, Nebraska, on Saturday, April 28.
RNeighborWoods will receive an Excellence in Volunteer Management Award in recognition of its outstanding efforts to mobilize and engage volunteers in
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A Litter Bit Better 2012
Pick it up on April 21-28
During the week of April 21-28, 2012, volunteers from Rochester neighborhoods, businesses, groups, and individuals will once again, be joining together to pick up the litter in our community. Last year nearly 10.5 tons (or 20,962 pounds) of waste were collected by 3,334 volunteers in 242 groups. Check out the stats from last year on our website.
You can help by volunteering to pick up Rochester. Register after March 1 on our website or by calling 507-328-2431.
April 21-28
Groups collect litter across Rochester
We need your help!
Check our website for more about A Litter Bit Better! and for information
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2012 Spring RNeighborWoods Tree Grant Planting
Photo: On April 21, the RNeighborWoods team helped both the Historic SW and the Folwell neighborhoods plant 25 trees each, as part of their Neighborhood Tree Grant.
At RNeighbors, we know that trees make good neighbors. That is why we partner with the City of Rochester, the Park and Rec Department and Rochester Public Utilities to offer the RNeighborWoods Tree grant for a winning neighborhood to receive free boulevard trees in the spring and fall.
“I’m very glad that, in the end, we managed to get 25 beautiful new trees in our neighborhood,” said Michael Spindler-Krage, lead organizer in the Historic SW neighborhood. ”Just
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Spring 2012 Citizen Forester Training
On Saturday, April 14, 2012, over 40 people dedicated their Saturday on all about how to be a Citizen Forester.
The RNeighborWoods team educated enthusiastic participants about tree planting basics, care, basic arboriculture and urban forest advocacy. A portion of the class was spent interacting with the out-of-doors and hand-on-learning.
This learning opportunity is provided twice a year, in the spring and the fall. Keep an eye out for the Community Education catalog for a chance to take the class this fall.
Check out our pictures on Facebook.
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RNews April 2012
Who are the people in your neighborhood? And what are they up to?
Check the latest edition of RNews, RNeighbors online newsletter to find out.
In addition to neighborhood news, there’s also valuable information about Rochester ordinances and lots of events coming up this summer that you can get involved with. Examples include an Pond & Garden Tour and a Art Festival in the park.
If you don’t already receive this newsletter via email and would like to, you can use this link to sign up.
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Second Annual Radish Healthy Living Fair
Mark you calendars for Radish Magazine’s 2nd annual Healthy Living Fair coming up on June 16th. Come on down to 4th St. and 4th Avenue early in the morning and visit both the fair and Downtown Rochester Farmers Market. A good, and green, time will be available for all!
If you would like to be an exhibitor click here to view the informational flyer.
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2012 Mayor’s Urban Forestry Volunteer Award Winners
Sponsored by the RNeighborWoods program, the Mayor’s Urban Forestry Volunteer Award was created to recognize amazing citizens, for outstanding contributions to Rochester’s urban forest. There are three categories for these awards including adult, youth and business.
2012 Mayor’s Urban Forestry Volunteer Award Winners
Adult: Andy Masterpole
Youth: Jason Koster
Business: Herring EcoLogistics
These awards will be presented by Mayor Brede at the Environmental Awareness Month Proclamation, Tuesday, April 3, 10 am in the Rotunda of the Government Center.
Adult: Andy Masterpole
Andy is a Senior Landscape Architect/Urban Designer, at Yaggy Colby Associates and uses his background and skill to assist with environmental projects around the community. Andy has been a strong
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