Bob Skiera Memorial Fund Building Bridges Initiative Grant Program

Bob Skiera was an urban forestry pioneer, known for his ability to communicate the needs and benefits of the urban forest and helped build bridges of trust and cooperation between urban foresters and other urban planning and management professionals. He was a past President of both the International Society of Arboriculture and the Wisconsin Arborist Association, served memorably as a Milwaukee City Forester and is a member of the Wisconsin Forestry Hall of Fame.

Established jointly by TREE Fund, the Skiera Family, Wisconsin Arborist Association and the International Society of Arboriculture, The Bob Skiera Memorial Fund now provides financial support for the “Building Bridges Initiative”. The Initiative is intended to help arborists and urban foresters communicate the value of trees and urban forests through engagement via collaborative research and other projects with public works officials, risk assessment professionals, civil engineers, wildlife researchers, soil scientists and others.

Note: The 2023 Building Bridges Initiative Grant(s) will be focused on research to facilitate or engage interactions between urban forest managers, arborists, and other professionals committed to maximizing value/use of the urban forest resource.

Areas

• Suggested areas of investigation (this list is not all-inclusive) might include:
  • Quantitative and/or qualitative analysis of urban forest benefits to humans and communities;
  • Policy formation and program implementation;
  • “Nature Based Solutions”;
  • Ecosystem services & Etc.

Funding Information

• The maximum award value of grants under the Building Bridges Initiative is $30,000, with $25,000 provided annually by the Bob Skiera Memorial Fund and $5,000 provided annually by the John White Memorial Fund.

Budget Elements, Including:

• Institutional Compensation, Stipends and Benefits
• Travel and Transportation
• Equipment (e.g. Vehicles, Growth Chambers, Etc.)
• Other Materials and Supplies (e.g. Paper, Ink, Etc.)
• Contract Labor (Consultants, Speakers, Etc.)
• Institutional Overhead (Maximum 10%)
• Other/Miscellaneous
• Cash or In-Kind Funding from Other Sources (Minimum 10%; unrecovered institutional overhead may be applied to meet this minimum).

Eligibility Criteria

• TREE Fund welcomes research proposals and applications from a wide range of academic and technical disciplines, of both a qualitative and a quantitative nature. TREE Fund does not fund the following types of projects, and will not accept applications for such work:
  • Grants to individuals;
  • Projects that are primarily municipal tree surveys or assessments;
  • Tree planting programs;
  • Studies of individual tree species for the primary purpose of agricultural or timber/forest planting yield;
  • Commercial tree- or soil-related product testing primarily for the benefit of the company that manufactures the product.

Criteria for Selection

• Staff will screen all applications for applicant eligibility, adherence to submission directions (including word counts), alignment with the TREE Fund mission, and compliance with minimum requirements.  Proposals meeting these criteria are then forwarded to the TREE Fund’s Research and Education Committee for a more thorough and competitive evaluation.  Prospective applicants can be sure that reviewers will place highest emphasis on:
  • Prior record of accomplishment by the investigative team. (Scientists early in their research careers may wish to include others with more research experience as active co-investigators or advisors)
  • Potential contribution of the project to the arboricultural industry.
  • Approach, including statement of hypotheses and experimental design
  • Dissemination plan to the scientific community and to tree care professionals
• TREE Fund does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, creed, gender, sexual orientation, disability or national or ethnic origin. Current trustees of TREE Fund or any member of the family of any such trustee are ineligible to receive grants from TREE Fund.

For more information, visit TREE Fund.