2014 Research Grant Awards

In 2014, the TREE Fund awarded  eight research grant awards totaling $225,604 to support urban tree research across the globe:

Utility Arborist Research Fund Grant ($58,000) – John Goodfellow (BioCompliance Consulting, Inc.) for “Development of a Business Case for Scheduling Utility Vegetation Management on a Preventive vs. Corrective Maintenance Basis”(Phase 2). This research has been exploring how to best determine optimum vegetation maintenance cycle periods and the tradeoffs between the relative costs of preventive vs. corrective maintenance. This second phase of the project will validate the algorithms that were developed in Phase I.

Hyland Johns Grant ($24,604) – Bryant Scharenbroch, PhD (The Morton Arboretum) for “Rapid Remediation of Urban Soil for Trees.” This project aims to determine the appropriate application rates and techniques for biosolids and biochar in order to rapidly improve urban soil quality.

John Z. Duling Grant ($10,000) – Dr. Gregory Dahle (West Virginia University) for “Characterizing strain and load transfer in the root flare.” This project will look at the pattern of strain distribution in the root flare to ascertain how load transfers from the trunk to the root-soil plate. This knowledge will help tree risk assessors and arborists better evaluate the likelihood of tree failure.

John Z. Duling Grant ($7,500) – Stephanie Adams (The Morton Arboretum) for “Assessing horticultural products as alternative treatments for managing fungal foliar infections.” This research will evaluate the efficacy of three non-pesticide treatments used to manage common fungal diseases, compared to trees treated with water and those treated with fungicides.

Jack Kimmel International Grant ($10,000) – Dr. Oleksandr Gromyko (Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Ukraine) for “Screening of actinobacteria for activities that protect trees against bacterial and fungal diseases.” This project will screen a collection of actinobacteria against six of the most notorious pathogens affecting virtually every tree species. The intent is to obtain several isolated strains with the ability to suppress growth of these pathogens and to promote plant growth.

Jack Kimmel International Grant ($10,000) – Dr. Haiying Liang (Clemson University) for “Development of molecular markers for red bay (Persea borbonia L.).” Red bay trees are dying because the red bay ambrosia beetle is spreading a fungal infection called laurel wilt. This study will initiate a small-scale analysis of 200 DNA markers of red bay to reveal the genetic composition of 80 clones commonly assumed to be resistant to laurel wilt. The markers will be useful in revealing genetic diversity, identifying resistance traits, and breeding for resistance.

Jack Kimmel International Grant ($5,500) – Dr. Manuela Baietto (University of Milan, Italy) for “Effect of root-stimulating treatments on physiologic and growth performances of Platanus x acerifolia and Ulmus pumila seedlings.” This project will assess the nutrient factors most responsible for the transplanting success of the London Plane and Siberian Elm shade trees.

View all past recipients of TREE Fund grants and scholarships here.