For many years, Casey Trees has collaborated with Bartlett Tree Research Laboratories, both at Casey Tree Farm and in the field, to test different interventions that maximize tree health, improve tree planting, and support the overall survival of urban trees.
This partnership was featured this month by the Tree Care Industry Association (TCIA) as a model public-private partnership advancing the work of both organizations to ensure our tree canopy continues to grow and thrive.
Below are some highlights from the profile written by Tim Bartelt, or you can read the full piece here.
There are symbiotic relationships across the natural world, with organisms counting on other organisms for success and survival. Symbiotic relationships also exist in the corporate environment, with one organization working with another organization for success and, in this case, tree survival. Such is the partnership between Bartlett Tree Experts, a scientific tree and shrub care company with local branches throughout the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Ireland; and Casey Trees, an organization that plants, cares for and protects trees in Washington, DC.
The primary purpose of their collaboration is for Bartlett to provide scientific research and tree care geared toward the preservation and survival of urban trees in support of Casey Trees’ effort to increase the tree canopy in and around the nation’s capital.
Need for research
While Casey Trees conducted research over the years, the results were mixed, says Mark Buscaino, executive director of Casey Trees. “It became clear through our initial research trials that to conduct research in a successful and durable fashion, we needed a partner with deep experience in research and with a philosophy similar to that of Casey Trees, to share those research findings broadly.”
A natural fit, therefore, was Bartlett Tree Research Laboratories (BTRL), based in Charlotte, North Carolina, which had been doing tree research for decades. In 2018, both groups met at Casey Tree Farm to talk about the possibilities of a partnership to conduct research and pursue similar activities of mutual interest and benefit to both organizations. “We’ve been collaborating ever since,” says Buscaino.
Aligned missions
Kelby Fite, Ph.D., vice president and director of research at BTRL, details its similar purpose. “Our mission is to investigate new products and new techniques, and to better care for the urban shade-tree canopy. (We) have 45 staff involved in the scientific approach to tree care as well as in training, where the primary focus is to support the arborists in the field. The greatest benefit comes from associations with allied organizations like Casey Trees.”
Buscaino reiterates the depth of the relationship with Bartlett. “The Bartlett and Casey Trees relationship is indeed unique. Both partners are sharing a large parcel of land to not only conduct tree research, but also to conduct trainings and related activities that are of mutual interest and benefit – and, by extension, that provide benefit to the entire arboricultural industry.”
Community and other organizational involvement
Vince Drader, communications director at Casey Trees, conveys the need for trees in under-served urban areas, such as “Washington, DC’s wards 5, 7 and 8 in the east part of the city. Those are traditionally under-served areas, with higher poverty rates, higher asthma rates and vulnerability to extreme flooding events. So those are not only under-served areas, but also areas that would see the greatest benefit from more trees and an increased tree canopy.”
Realizing the potential benefits of trees to their neighborhoods, community members are a great resource. Drader comments, “We connect with thousands of volunteers every year at our community planting events and more. Communities, neighborhoods and partners all over DC are involved in myriad ways – planting, caring for and protecting our trees and green spaces.”
Drader continues, “Our organization’s activities within the community and the benefit we see, from a purely for-profit lens, is that it elevates the value of the asset, the tree. If you have nonprofits in cities really helping the public and community, putting value on the thing the private sector is caring for, then you also have people thinking about trees more, wanting to care for them, protect them and, in turn, raising the value of that asset. So, for the private sector, it just makes sure that the trees are present and a valued commodity in our local communities.”
Conclusion
Partnership is an apt word to describe the relationship and collaboration between these two organizations collectively engaging in cooperative research, in-tandem trainings and sharing a common goal geared toward tree preservation and the survival of urban trees.
But it’s not only the DC metro area that is undergoing a decline in tree canopy, and it remains to be seen if the solutions in Washington can be applied to other communities. Buscaino continues, “In general, based on past United States Forestry Service (USFS) nationwide analyses, urban canopy across the U.S. is either stalled or declining.”
The ultimate success of the Casey Trees/Bartlett partnership may be that it encourages more organizations to work together for the benefit and future success of urban-tree survival.
