We are the Huntsville Tree Champions.

Our goal is to connect community members looking to learn about, plant, and maintain native trees in Huntsville, AL. By partnering with our neighbors we hope to preserve the urban canopy and ensure future generations enjoy the benefits of a healthy and vibrant urban canopy. We are starting in Five Points but aim to expand to other neighborhoods in the future.

In July of 2020, a small cohort of Five Points residents became certified citizen arborists by completing a two-day course on urban forestry presented by the Alabama Urban Forestry Association, Auburn University at Montgomery, Industry Employers and Suppliers, and the Green Industry Web Portal. As certified citizen arborists, we can offer counsel to our neighbors on the right location, the right season, and most importantly the right trees to plant.

How to Get Involved:

• I am a property owner interested in planting trees on my lot.
  • Contact us for recommendations; we can advise what and where to plant based on soil type, level of desired maintenance, and amount of sunlight. Here is a great guide to native trees to get you started. Here is a link to a list of local nurseries. Once you have identified and purchased your tree(s), volunteers from Huntsville Tree Champions can help you plant it. Sign up here.
• I want to help plant trees.
  • Contact us to be added to the roster of volunteers. We will reach out to you ahead of future events. We will aim to plan trees mostly during the November through February time-frame. Sign up here.

Why get Involved?

Volunteering in your community is a good way to meet your neighbors, contribute to causes you care about, and even can be something to put on your resume! We hope that you will consider volunteering your time to help neighbors plant the right trees in the right places.

For events sponsored by Operation Green Team, you can be eligible to have your community service filed and notarized. Visit their website to learn more.

Get ready for the next event:

Coalition Partners:

We are grateful to the following organizations for their involvement in this project and continued support provided through education, training, and subject matter expertise:

Alabama Urban Forestry Association

Alabama Urban Forestry Association

Operation Green Team

Green Industry Web Portal

Northeast Huntsville Civic Association

Hey everyone! I’ve been meaning to provide some updates and overhauls to the website for quite some time now and, in the interest of providing at least some new info, I figured I’d go ahead and make a quick new post for the first time in ages! So I’ll list some of the stuff we’ve been working on with the Civic Association and some of our upcoming work, as well as provide some links to places you can sign up to volunteer with us!

Since the pandemic started and we’ve not been able to safely hold our in-person meetings, our main focus has been on service within the community. To that end, we’ve “Adopted a Mile” and started a monthly cleanup event on Meridian Street, between Pratt Ave and Oakwood Ave, on the first Sunday of each month (weather permitting). You may have seen our event flyer (below) around Northeast Huntsville or hopefully seen the events on our Instagram or Facebook pages. On top of our monthly litter pickup work, we’ve also partnered with Operation Green Team to help with several tree planting events in our neighborhood over the last year. If you’ve noticed the nice happy little trees over in Beirne Ave Park, you can thank our hardworking volunteers for the shade!

Now for some cool news about an upcoming event we’ll be at and also some info on how to sign up to volunteer with us! If you wanna see our smiling faces and find out more about the work we’re doing, or just enjoy a fun family event with live entertainment, good local food, all in support of a good cause, you should definitely put the upcoming Back to School Block Party! We’ll be there with some info about our work, other local helpful organizations, and just enjoying the chance to meet some neighbors during a really cool event. For more details check out their website.

FINALLY, here’s a couple of forms we’ve created this year to help people sign up to volunteer with us. Just fill out your basic info and interest and we’ll be in touch to let you know where and when to show up!

General Volunteer Sign-up Form

Join Tree Brigade HSV

That’s all for now. I’m hoping to do some serious updates to the website, which you’ve probably noticed is very out of date. Stay tuned for that as well as more opportunities to volunteer and meet with the Northeast Huntsville Civic Association!

– Austin J. –

Communications Chair

Northeast Huntsville Civic Association

The Oak Park Yeti was last seen by Adam Rosetta in 2017 on the Dallas Branch trail, just off the Oak Park Trail.  Since then, we think he/she/it has been taking – and reading- the books from the Little Free Library at the Oak Park Pavilion.  We think that because we sometimes see fur on the posts in the pavilion and some of the books have a little bit of mud on the covers.  We also think it eats the eggplants and basil from the community garden at the Oak Park park, too. We are just glad to know it likes books!  Come look for our yeti and make a souvenir.  Crafts for all ages- with parent’s supervision for the tiny hands.

Join us next Sunday, 10-27-19 at 1 pm!

HPD meeting Tues 5/28 – 6 pm Jackson Way Baptist Church
This is an opportunity for all neighbors to take some initiative to meet one another and strengthen relationships that will keep the neighborhood safe -and happy. Two topics will be covered: animals and speeding.
We are launching a Slow Down campaign on this night. One of the ways to do that is a series of events called Kidz Safe sponsored by Rotary club members. Come and give opinions on date and places for a safety festival.
Animal services will be there to talk about newest laws regarding pets, wildlife , and will have licensing forms.
We arranged for the sale of pet name tags on behalf of the Northeast Huntsville Cvic Association complements of Hollywood Feed.

Please attend!

The first is the NEHCA Quarterly Meeting on Tuesday April 23rd at 6:30pm at the Optimist Park Community Center!

The second is the City Council Meeting for the Greenways and Bikes Lanes! Thursday April 25th – 6PM at 308 Fountain Circle SW!

The 3rd Annual Garden Gathering will take place on April 13th from 9-12 at the Optimist Park Pavilion. Bring, trade and swap garden bulbs, plants, seeds, herbs, flowers, veggies, garden equipment and talk with local gardeners and experts! There will be activities for the kids, a raffle, composting and worm info, seed bombs, and much more. This is a free event for the Huntsville Community sponsored by the Northeast Huntsville Civic Association and all are welcome!

Have you heard our PSA on WLRH?

 

At least 900 homes are in the FEMA designated flood plain or flood fringe in NE Huntsville.  After Hurricane Katrina, FEMA needed less risk and required people to purchase private insurance while making money available to cities to improve storm water management.  Last year, 15 Million was awarded.

Huntsville city engineers are currently updating the cost estimate too build the infrastructure that was designed in 2013 when the housing market was at its lowest. We know that the project cost now exceeds the grant award of 15 million.  New funding sources will be required to move this project forward, either with additional grant funds or city capital funds.  We will be discussing these options over the next few weeks with FEMA and the Administration to decide how to proceed. We recommend that anyone who pays flood insurance do two things, both things:

1.  Go the CITY COUNCIL MEETINGS to tell the Mayor that you want City money, Economic Development monies, to be dedicated now, not wait for FEMA and

2. Write to Kathy.martin@huntsvilleal.gov to let her know you want city funds, the money in Economic Development budget, to pay for the work.