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Belfast group and state urge prepared municipal plans, inventory and grant applications as EAB arrives
Summary
Local volunteers and state urban foresters urged Belfast and nearby towns to complete inventories, form management plans and apply for Project Canopy grants; Belfast leaders noted a recent street‑tree inventory and called for public education rather than panic removals.
Jan Santerre, who leads the state urban and community forestry program Project Canopy, told attendees that every Maine community should consider an inventory and a management plan to guide ash removals, treatment choices and replanting. "Conduct an inventory. That's the first thing that you want to do," she said, adding that inventories can be scaled to focus on ash trees or high‑value street trees.
Santerre said Project Canopy has three grant categories (planning & education, planting & maintenance, and restoration grants funded through the Inflation Reduction Act for eligible communities). She described a $15,000 cap on planting and maintenance grants (dollar‑for‑dollar match required, which can be in‑kind) and noted larger IRA‑funded awards can reach up to $200,000 for eligible projects.
Local volunteers described Belfast’s recent effort: Carol Hartwig, the city’s tree warden and chair of the tree working group, said the group completed an inventory this year and entered more than 60,000 trees into a mapped database used to prioritize removals and replacements. April Dana Tagnon, a master gardener with the working group, said the inventory shows a high proportion of ash and Norway maple in rights of way and stressed that residents should not respond by indiscriminately cutting trees.
Hartwig urged the city to develop a tree commission and a stronger tree ordinance; she noted the current ordinance levies only a small penalty for unauthorized removals. Santerre and other presenters said the state can provide sample plans, lists of licensed arborists and applicators, and technical assistance for grant applications and inventories.
What comes next: presenters encouraged municipal officials to sign up for state mailing lists, consult Maine resources (maine.gov/eab and Project Canopy pages), and begin or apply for planning grants to fund inventories and management plans.
