Despite strong regional and local goals to expand urban forests within the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, implementation lags behind intentions. A major impediment to increasing urban tree canopy in many communities is a lack of adequate funding to plan and carry out tree planting and maintenance programs. This course provides municipal elected officials, their staff, and anyone involved in promoting the development and maintenance of thriving community forests with guidance on how to design an effective funding program to implement community forestry goals in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.

The Earth’s climate is changing. Impacts - including higher temperatures, warming water temperatures, rising sea levels, and longer periods of extreme weather - are already being felt in the Chesapeake Bay watershed and are expected to worsen. The good news is there are actions we can all take to help mitigate and adapt to these impacts. Landscape professionals, in particular, have a unique opportunity to address the effects of our changing climate.