Maine’s Project Canopy: Trees Make Our Lives Better

Photo of Maine by 2013 NASF Foundation photographer Joel PrinceBlog submitted by Jan Ames Santerre.

Project Canopy is about people. The program educates people about the benefits trees provide, and how trees make people's lives better.

Project Canopy connects people who have a particular expertise to people who need that expertise. It helps build bridges with town and city governments, and it knows how to communicate in a local, political environment. And just as important, Project Canopy helps people talk about success stories, so that they can find the motivation—and inspiration—that is crucial for developing creative, long-term community forestry programs. 

The Maine Forest Service has an incredible reservoir of knowledge and expertise. The challenge for us is to get that knowledge to those who can use it most. Any long-term community forestry program needs commitment and understanding from many different corners. Project Canopy's role is to get people in different corners talking to each other, so that awareness about trees can grow by leaps and bounds.

We accomplish this by using down-to-earth strategies and deploying technical experts into the field to lend hands-on assistance.

Project Canopy:

  • Helps recruit and organize volunteers;
  • Provides model community tree ordinances;
  • Assists in fundraising efforts;
  • Trains tree stewards;
  • Provides street tree inventory software;
  • Helps communities appoint/elect a community tree warden;
  • Links communities to other Maine communities with successful tree programs;
  • Provides lists of local foresters and arborists;
  • Builds bridges to national community tree organizations;
  • Assists in development of a long-term community tree plan;

And much more.

Project Canopy is a cooperative effort of the Maine Forest Service and GrowSmart Maine. Learn more about the program at www.projectcanopy.me.

Photo by 2013 NASF Foundation photographer Joel Prince

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