CTC Grants

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One of the LSR Grant funded projects was for a tree planting project in Aurora at Hampden Hills at Aurora HOA. Our own, CTC volunteer and board member, Allison Serafin Steere, lives in this community and has served on the HOA board for several years.

The community was constructed in the early 1980s and based on the age distribution, very few (if any) trees had been planted since that time. In 2020, Allison completed a tree inventory of the entire community, where it was determined that nearly 40% of the community’s trees were either Ponderosa pine or Austrian pine. The next common species in the community was quaking aspen, where most of the trees were in poor condition. Recognizing the urgent need to increase species diversity and begin succession planting. Allison applied for a CTC grant in hopes of starting an annual tree planting program and community building activity.

In preparation for this community-wide tree planting project, Allison went from door-to-door, asking residents to volunteer to plant trees in the community. Many residents requested trees to plant in front of their units and commit to caring for the trees during the winter to provide winter watering.

On May 1st, she had more than 30 volunteers plant a total of 20 trees. The planting of these trees added three different species of trees to the community that had not been previously planted, which is the first step to increasing the overall species composition and reducing reliance on the most common species of trees in the community. The event provided an opportunity for the neighborhood to connect and helped to beautify areas with new trees. The CTC granted Hampden Hills $1,500 towards the project, with a one-to-one match, the project’s total cost was $3,300.

The Town of La Veta, which is located 16 miles southwest of Walsenburg, was awarded $2,000 to help implement the town’s Tree Canopy Renewal Program. The goal of the program is to increase public safety; provide volunteers with the necessary tools and training to plant and prune trees; improve the health of the community forest; and to increase species diversity. On May 27th, volunteers planted nine trees in commemoration of Arbor Day throughout the community. As part of the event, the Parks and Tree Board conducted a training on tree selection and maintenance for community members.

The grant allowed the Parks and Tree Board to purchase tools that will assist volunteers in completing clearance and visibility pruning and the removal of small dead trees throughout the community as identified by an inventory that was conducted by the Parks and Tree Board the previous year. This volunteer work will help reduce the need for professional tree services and be the start of a regular maintenance program for La Veta’s community forest, which will hopefully promote interest in forestry management throughout the community.

The City of Grand Junction was awarded $1,500 to assist in a nearly $13,000 project to expand an aquaponics greenhouse to experiment with the production of bare root trees in the system. The project was intended to research the potential of producing lower cost trees for the City and to compare the growth of trees produced in this system with similar trees that are balled and burlap.