{"id":15022,"date":"2018-07-31T18:36:34","date_gmt":"2018-07-31T18:36:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.golive.clarku.edu\/news\/2018\/07\/31\/stakeholders-applaud-students-valuable-work-on-greening-the-gateway-cities\/"},"modified":"2025-04-02T05:42:49","modified_gmt":"2025-04-02T09:42:49","slug":"stakeholders-applaud-students-valuable-work-on-greening-the-gateway-cities","status":"publish","type":"story","link":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2018\/07\/31\/stakeholders-applaud-students-valuable-work-on-greening-the-gateway-cities\/","title":{"rendered":"Stakeholders applaud students’ ‘valuable work’ on Greening the Gateway Cities"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n\r\nAs a budding biologist in Wallingford, Pennsylvania, Elizabeth Lohr ’19 surveyed and mapped all the trees on her high school campus. Now an undergraduate at Clark University, she is pursuing her passion for trees on a much larger scale, through the Graduate School of Geography<\/a>’s HERO (Human-Environment Regional Observatory)<\/a> program.\r\n\r\n
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Elizabeth Lohr ’19 presents data on the vitality of planted trees in Fall River and Chicopee, part of Massachusetts’ Greening the Gateway Cities program.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n“This program was almost custom-made to my interests. I really love learning everything about trees,” says Lohr, a double-major in biology<\/a> and geography<\/a>, Traina Scholar<\/a>, and 2018-19 HERO Fellow.\r\n\r\nFor eight weeks this summer, Lohr and five other HERO Fellows checked the vitality of trees in Chicopee and Fall River and interviewed residents to see if Massachusetts’ Greening the Gateway Cities Program<\/a> has paid off. The program aims to increase tree canopy by 10 percent in high-density neighborhoods by providing residents with trees and planting them along city streets. So far, conservation employees have planted more than 8,000 trees in 16 cities.\r\n\r\nOn July 12, the students presented their results to a roomful of stakeholders from the state Department of Conservation and Recreation<\/a> (DCR), U.S. Department of Agriculture<\/a>, Worcester Tree Initiative, <\/a>and community members. Their data will be added to that of the 2017-18 HERO cohort, which focused on trees in the Gateway Cities of Holyoke, Chelsea, and Revere<\/a>. Over 19 years, HERO Fellows have researched the interaction between humans and the environment, from residential lawn care to the area’s recovery from Asian longhorned beetle damage, and contributed data subsequently used by local, state, and federal officials.\r\n\r\n“You’ve been doing this many years now, and it’s great to see the changes over time,” Mat Cahill, an urban forester for DCR’s Greening the Gateway Cities, told the student presenters. “This is usable information that we can take back to this program. Your work is valuable, and we appreciate what you do.”\r\n\r\nAlong with Lohr, this year’s HERO Fellows include geography<\/a> majors Rowan Moody ’20 of Ellington, Connecticut; Andrew Pagan ’19 of Hanson, Massachusetts; Yeannet Ruiz ’19 of Houston, Texas; Laura Cohen ’19 of Denville, New Jersey (also a sociology<\/a> major); and Rachel Corcoran-Adams ’20, an international development and social change<\/a> major from West Hartford, Connecticut. They were mentored by geography professors Deborah Martin and John Rogan and doctoral students Nick Geron and Marc Healy.\r\n\r\n
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HERO Fellows check the condition of a newly planted tree in Chicopee. At left is Professor Deborah Martin; at right, Sarah Greenleaf and Rachel De Matte of the state Department of Conservation and Recreation.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\nIn June and July, the students checked 2,271 trees planted in Chicopee and Fall River; about 92 percent had survived. Among their findings:\r\n