What happens in the winter?

Just because it’s not tree-plant­i­ng sea­son doesn’t mean we’re not work­ing hard! While win­ter does involve some tree care and prun­ing, a lot of our win­ter time is spent prep­ping for the Spring and Fall sea­sons. We have big plans for 2021, and that means big prepa­ra­tions in the off-season.

So much of our work involves oth­er orga­ni­za­tions, so we spend a lot of time doing out­reach and work­ing with those part­ners in the win­ter to set these projects up for suc­cess. For One Tree Per Child Pitts­burgh, that means build­ing net­works and con­tacts with­in school dis­tricts across the coun­ty. For our Tree Adop­tion Events, it means doing out­reach to groups in those com­mu­ni­ties to ensure that neigh­bor­hood res­i­dents know about the Tree Adop­tion Events and get first dibs on avail­able trees. Of course, our Com­mu­ni­ty Forestry team is always work­ing with cities, munic­i­pal­i­ties, and oth­er enti­ties on tree pro­tec­tion poli­cies and ordinances.

We’ve told you before about how the Her­itage Nurs­ery process­es seeds and plans for the spring and fall grow­ing sea­sons. After seed pro­cess­ing, Matt S. and Megan make prop­a­ga­tion sched­ules. This is also a great time to do an inven­to­ry of our avail­able trees and make plans for 2022!

Speak­ing of trees, the win­ter sea­son gives us the oppor­tu­ni­ty to plan the tree plant­i­ngs we have on the books so far for the spring and fall. This includes site assess­ments, more meet­ings with part­ners, and look­ing at avail­able stock to match the right tree with the right plant­i­ng loca­tion. Win­ter is also a great time to prune many species in our area, so our crew gets to work prun­ing young trees to help shape them for success.

When it comes to edu­ca­tion, we take this time to look back at past suc­cess­es (and pho­tos) and plan a slate of offer­ings to keep you learn­ing about the urban for­est. We also update cur­ricu­lum for use in schools, with scout groups, and for One Tree Per Child Pittsburgh.

While all this work is going on, some of us are busy gath­er­ing up all infor­ma­tion on events, class­es, and oppor­tu­ni­ties for our 2021 Spring Guide to Back­yard Arbori­cul­ture. Keep your eyes peeled for that, com­ing soon!

Please note that the pho­to above was tak­en in 2017 — we cur­rent­ly use PPE and fol­low COVID-19 protocols!