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Project Acorn reports 300+ trees planted, workforce training funded by $1M federal grant
Summary
City staff told a committee that Project Acorn, a $1 million federal grant program, has trained workers and planted more than 300 landscape-sized trees across five targeted neighborhoods and will run four more cohorts through 2027; staff asked council to help publicize tree giveaways and ward outreach.
City staff gave an update on Project Acorn, an urban-forestry and workforce-development program funded by a $1,000,000 federal grant spanning five years.
Jessica Glochowski, the city's watershed superintendent, said the program combines urban-canopy restoration with an eight-week paid training academy that hires Akron residents. The first cohort, called Aspen Academy, trained five people (one participant dropped at the last moment) with classroom and field instruction from Davy Tree and hands-on planting and care. ‘‘We trained 5 people. We planted over 300 trees to date,’’ Glochowski said, and noted that more than 258 landscape-sized trees were planted in the first academy with more than 120 of those on private property to connect canopy.
The grant-funded program includes certification opportunities (including an Ohio pesticide-applicator license) and job fairs; staff said two cohort graduates were hired as full-time city employees. The program also planted five pocket orchards and held an Earth Day event with 45 volunteers that picked up more than 500 pounds of trash.
Glochowski asked council for help publicizing upcoming tree giveaways to private-property owners in the five targeted neighborhoods, and said the next cohort (Birch) begins March 30 and the program will continue through 2027, with a goal of a minimum 150 trees per future cohort. Staff said trees and workforce training are grant-funded and that they will provide ward-specific flyers and maps of existing plantings to council members.
What happens next: Staff will work with council offices to distribute outreach materials and promote Earth Day events and private-property tree giveaways in target neighborhoods.
Speakers quoted include Jessica Glochowski and other staff presenters.
