The conferences were held at the Lied Center, which is part of the National Arbor Day Foundation s Farm. Both conferences concentrated on building urban and community forests, and honoring tree cities across the country. I learned a great deal and made many new friends from around the country. It is clear from these two conferences that our goals are shared by many organizations around the country. We are lucky to have big, beautiful trees and can only appreciate them by listening to a speaker talk about how devastated his area is due to its urban sprawl.
New ideas are always a bonus of attending conferences and they spawned a new interest for Gateway.
A presenter from Missouri talked about how his group used some abandoned land to develop a tree farm. I called Sheriff Draper and he gave me the okay to develop a tree farm. We can now grow our own trees and shrubs that can be used at the schools or on any of our projects. It also gives me a place to put plants that are donated for future use. It is exciting to see this take off and it offers unlimited opportunities for Gateway projects.