Tree Fund announces scholarship and spring cycle grant awardees

The Tree Research and Education Endowment Fund awarded six scholarships and two grants through the spring 2024 application cycle.

Scholarships

TREE Fund’s spring application cycle received 29 student applications. Each scholarship is worth $5,000. Of the six scholarships given, two were for the Robert Felix Memorial Scholarship, and one each was for the Bonnie Appleton Memorial Scholarship, John Wright Memorial Scholarship, Will Nutter Memorial Scholarship and Fran Ward Women in Arboriculture Scholarship.

The Robert Felix Memorial Scholarship supports college students studying arboriculture, urban forestry or related fields with the intention of entering arboriculture. It was awarded to two students: Earielle London of Southern University and A&M College and Taylor Law of Portland Community College in Oregon.

The Bonnie Appleton Memorial Scholarship, which supports college students studying arboriculture, urban forestry, horticulture, nursery management or a related field with the intention of becoming a professional in one of these fields, was awarded to Jakob Van Berkom of South Dakota State University.

The John Wright Memorial Scholarship, which supports high school seniors and returning college students pursuing careers related to arboriculture, was awarded to Bailey Nez of Dartmouth College.

The Will Nutter Memorial Scholarship, which supports the utility forestry and arboriculture industry by helping college students interested in those fields achieve high academic goals without accumulating burdensome debt, was awarded to Gabriel Koelzer of West Virginia University.

The Fran Ward Women in Arboriculture Scholarship, which supports female college students enrolled in a program related to the practice of arboriculture and urban forestry, was awarded to Alexandra Cseri of the University of Rhode Island.

Grants

Two grants were also awarded from the spring application cycle, with projects focusing on aiding nurseries and vegetation management.

The Barborinas Family Fund Grant, which supports work with study of the processes of the nursery industry with a focus on the root system and aboveground structures, was awarded to NVK Nurseries and Ryan Munroe for their project, “Improving Tree Root Quality from Seedling to Finished Tree,” in the amount of $10,000.

The Utility Arborist Research Fund Grant (UARF), established in 2010 with Utility Arborist Association, supports work with importance and benefit to utility tree care professionals. The 2024 UARF Grant was awarded to West Virginia University and Dr. Paul Kinder Jr. for their project, “Improving Future Utility Vegetation Management Options by Developing a Public Collection of Open-Source Annotated Machine Learning Data Archive,” in the amount of $50,000.

TREE Fund’s next grant application cycle will be in fall 2024, with applications accepted between Aug. 1 and Oct. 1, and six grant opportunities available. Additional information on the grants available this fall and the application process can be found on TREE Fund’s website.