This picture represents most of the present NMGVs who labor in the, lately broiling, sun on Monday mornings to survey the condition and inventory the City of Norfolk’s vast number of trees. To put up with the brutal conditions of late, it has to be a labor of love both for trees and the City of Norfolk.

 But, how did it begin? The present street tree inventory project can trace its roots back to a one-week training session in October 1999 for twenty-five Master Gardeners from seven area cities. The Norfolk Division of Parks and Urban Forestry assisted Virginia Cooperative Extension in launching this new regional Master Gardener Tree Steward program. This program provided 40 hours of advanced training in the care of trees. Eleven area professionals, including Norfolk’s City Forester and Landscape Program Coordinator, provided instruction. Master Gardeners received classroom and field training in tree morphology and anatomy, tree identification, plant propagation, tree planting, training and pruning, plant nutrition, soils and plant site selection, tree insect and disease management, tree protection during construction and hazardous tree identification.

 In exchange for the training, the new Tree Steward committed to an equal number of community service hours providing some type of public tree care assistance in their community. Seven out of the twenty-five attendees at the 1999 Tree Steward training were from Norfolk, which was the beginning of our Norfolk street tree inventory project.

 Submitted by Bob Hudson ‘05