July Tree Talk: 2024 Greater and Greener Conference 

By: Shelly Barrick Parsons, Executive Director

A delegation representing Capital Trees attended the Greater and Greener Conference in Seattle, Washington June 21-25.  Sponsored by City Parks Alliance, Greater and Greener is the biennial conference for urban parks professionals from all sectors (government, nonprofit, foundations, business). Richmond was well represented at the conference with additional attendees from the City of Richmond’s Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities, Venture Richmond, and the Central Virginia Transportation Authority. The conference included both workshops and tours of public greenspaces in the Seattle region and was an invaluable opportunity to learn about best practices on management, design, engagement, and fundraising for greenspaces.

The Capital Trees’ delegation attended a variety of workshops including:

• Power Sharing and Community-Driven Design for Parks
• Marymoor Park to East Lake Sammamish Trail (mobile tour)
• Decolonizing Public Spaces and Community Engagement through Indigenous Placekeeping and Partnerships
• Parks and Climate Justice
• Federal Funding Opportunities for Parks: Green Space, Recreation, Trails, and Resiliency
• The Success and Evolution of Park Funding Partnerships

Here are a few key takeaways:

Planting and Managing for Climate Resilience

The first two days of the conference included mobile tours visiting Seattle area parks and trails and learning directly from the community and park professionals about the development, use, and management of their public greenspaces. Capital Trees staff toured Seward Park on Sunday. In conversing with park staff, we learned about their challenges prioritizing native plants in a both very well-loved and frequently-visited park setting and in the face of changing climate. In their region, they are seeing hotter and wetter summers than in decades past. Where able, they are beginning to source plants from nearby areas that reflect the trend towards hotter and wetter summers in hopes that those trees will establish themselves better in the long term alongside the changing climate. This approach is distinct from the focus on prioritizing local-ecotype plants that is common in our region. In conversation with other professionals who work throughout the country, I learned that the local-ecotype emphasis is unique to the Mid-Atlantic region. At Capital Trees, we prioritize planting native plants when possible. But there’s more to it than that. We also look at long term viability, adaptation for urban contexts, and how the plant or tree would contribute to building a space that benefits both people and nature. The conversations surrounding planting plans to compensate for our changing climate give us much to consider as we work to select the right plants, trees, and shrubs for the right location. It’s not just about the right planting for present day, but also about what will continue to thrive for years to come.

Public Greenspaces Build Stronger, Healthier Communities

The closing reception took place at the Seattle Gas Works Park on a mild and beautiful Tuesday evening. The park and Lake Union were bustling with activity and people — sunbathing, running, strolling, talking, boating, and floating. As a public park, there was no barrier to access this space and the water. This is the essential and definitive aspect of public landscapes — they are parks for all people. It was amazing to see how this public landscape drew people out into the community and facilitated connection with one another. The conference underscored again and again that public landscapes are essential to vibrant and healthy communities. They help build climate resilience by improving air quality, reducing heat island, and mitigating stormwater. They help people feel grounded in their neighborhood by creating an identifiable, safe, and welcoming public space to gather. They help us connect with our neighbors and nature.

Community Engagement — Central to Design, Construction, and Management

Public landscapes are essential to strong, healthy, and safe communities. But in established communities, it’s essential that greening organizations work with community stakeholders early and often when developing public greenspaces. Community connections should begin before the design process starts so that ample trust and respect for all parties involved in the process is built.

The conference outlined some of the best practices of community engagement:

• Observing and listening

• Teaching and learning

• Sustaining beyond construction

On existing and potential project sites it is important to take time to observe current uses and listen to users and neighbors about their desires for the space, their concerns and needs in the broader community, and their desires for supporting the project. The lived experience of community members who live in and near project sites is of the utmost importance. Organizations seeking to partner with communities on greenspace projects should show up in the community outside of project specific programs, to get to know the heart of the community.

Community engagement should include teaching and learning. Organizations desiring to engage the community should have resources they can share with the community about design, management, and climate resilience. In turn, communities have something to teach organizations about the community — its history, its gifts, its values, and its vision.

Finally, programs and relationships built from these early engagement opportunities should extend long past the completion of construction. The goal is to help build investment in the stewardship of the park into the future.

Here are some specific action questions for consideration:

• What are collaborative actions an organization can take that others can not?
• How can an organization show up in the community and become recognizable as a community asset?
• Where has your organization shown up at local events?
• Has your organization asked the community: How can we be helpful?
• How will the organization follow through and respond to community feedback?

We implemented many of these approaches in the early planning stages of our project: “Hotchkiss Green.” We understand that we’re guests in an already thriving community and designed our project plans in accordance with feedback from community members. We’re committed to continuing to learn the best practices for building and managing public landscapes. Capital Trees will continue to build on the findings from this conference to inform our greening work in Richmond, Virginia.

July — Urban Green Space Maintenance

We’ve said it once and we’ll say it again, our Wednesday morning maintenance volunteers are the bee’s knees. Thank you to each and every one of them! Being outside in Richmond in July is not for the faint of heart, and they’ve braved extreme heat, rain, and humidity to keep the gardens looking their best. Unfortunately, the same conditions that make it tough to be outside are preferred by both crabgrass and wiregrass, and we can always use additional volunteers on Wednesday mornings to help keep these weeds at bay. If you’re interested in volunteering, please reach out to us at [email protected]. We also benefitted from a workday with employees from Evonik this month, they accomplished a day of major weed removal in the fringe tree beds along the road — thanks to all of the companies who choose Capital Trees for their community outreach opportunities.

Don’t let the heat prevent you from enjoying the outdoors. Thanks to the shade trees in the gardens, there are spots along the Low Line and Virginia Capital Trail that offer shade and respite from the heat, and of course coming out first thing in the morning will help you avoid the worst of each day’s heat. The gardens remain beautiful even through the hottest parts of the summer, with bright yellow Rudbeckia blooms, pale green Annabel Hydrangeas, bright orange milkweed flowers, and white and burgundy swamp mallow. 

July — Featured Trees Seasonal Update

This year we’ll be documenting the same two trees as they progress out of dormancy, bud out in the spring, are full of foliage in the summer, and lose their leaves in the fall. Follow along for monthly updates on the River Birch and Eastern White Redbud along the Low Line Gardens in Richmond, Virginia.

July — Spotted at the Low Line Gardens

Our urban greenspaces are designed to be beautiful four-season gardens for visitors, but not just the human ones! We plant flowering trees, shrubs, and plants with pollinators in mind, aiming to provide pollen and nectar for as many months of the year as possible. This bee surely seemed to appreciate it, we caught him indulging in pollen on a Hibiscus mocheutos (Swamp Mallow).