Trees in urban areas and community spaces help the health of our cities and towns by cleaning the air and beautifying the streets.
 
Tree health can be impacted by many factors, including invasive species.
 
How You Can Help:
  • Help tree care professionals and scientists by reporting the health of local trees with the “Healthy Trees, Healthy Cities” app.
  • If you live in Watertown, NY, you can adopt a tree to monitor for signs of invasive pests. 
  • If you manage street trees, learn how to enhance the resiliency of your community trees against invasive species and climate change with our Urban Forest Sustainability Guide. 

Healthy Trees, Healthy Cities (HTHC) is a collaborative initiative to promote the long-term health of urban trees by providing free tools and resources such as a smartphone application (“app”), a web-based project management dashboard, and training resources.

Get the App
Watertown Arboretum Story-map

The Adopt a Tree Pilot Project is a community science project being piloted in Watertown, NY. The intension of the program is to raise awareness of invasive forest pests and to help manage invasive pests that are found before their populations become too wide-spread. 

Partcipants in the program adopt a tree in Watertown’s downtown tree arboretum to monitor for and report signs of invasive forest pests that threaten the Northern New York region. At this time, the progam is focusing on enhancing early detection efforts for emerald ash borer, spotted lanternfly, hemlock woolly adelgid and Asian longhorned beetle.  

Adopt a Tree

Our Urban Forest Sustainability Initiative Guide is designed to help our communities sustain their urban forests by encouraging the following strategies: increased tree species diversity, planting climate adaptable trees, implementing proper pest management, planting the right trees in the right places, and selecting native rather than non-native tree species. Taking these steps enhances the resiliency of our urban forests against invasive pests and climate change.

Get the Guide

Did you enjoy this blog post? Take our Pledge to Protect and get monthly emails showcasing actions you can take to protect your favorite hiking trails, paddleways, forests, garden, and community from the impacts of invasive species!

Take the Pledge to Protect

The Pledge-to-Protect is a fun, positive, inviting, engaging and rewarding way to participate in invasive species prevention and management.

 

Here’s How It Works:
 
  1. Fill out the pledge form below and select the outdoor areas you spend the most time in.
  2. Check your inbox for your confirmation email.
  3. Explore the resources in the virtual toolkits or download the PDFs.
  4. Earn a virtual badge for each pledge you take.
  5. Every month, you’ll receive a special Pledge-to-Protect email about a prevention/management activity to help you fulfill your pledge OR a highlight of an invasive species to keep an eye out for.
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Chose the pledge category that you spend the most time in or that you're the most interested in learning of applicable prevention and management actions you can take while enjoying these environments.
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