Interview with Tree Amigo Sharon

Dedicated, meaningful and enduring work deserves recognition. To honor our long-time Tree Amigos, we will be sharing a four-part series of blog posts that highlight the personalities, experiences and environmental guidance of our beloved docents Sharon, Carol, Judy and Sarah!

Our first featured Amigo is Sharon.

How long have you been volunteering with Our City Forest?

I have been a Tree Amigo for seven years.

What inspired your interest in the environment and urban forestry?

I have been interested in environmental issues for many years.

What is your favorite thing to do or your favorite part about being a Tree Amigo?

I love planting trees or seedlings knowing that they will grow into beautiful things in the future with love and care. I also like disseminating information to the public about OCF and making them aware of our many wonderful services. I like being among the trees while volunteering at the nursery. It is mini "forest bathing".  Helping customers while they visit the nursery is gratifying and I enjoy giving my time to a worthwhile organization.

Do you have a favorite experience or memory from your time as a Tree Amigo?

My favorite experiences are:  

• Seeing customers at the nursery who are so impressed and delighted with the services OCF provides.

• Telling a visitor at the nursery looking for a tree but didn't want to put any effort into it - no watering, no raking of leaves, no pruning - that he should get a plastic tree!

• Meeting a lot great young AmeriCorps people.

• Making Valentine cards for Andy Frank!

• Through OCF I had my front lawn converted through the lawn buster program.  I now very much enjoy my beautiful drought tolerant landscape.

Sharon’s front yard that was transformed into a drought-tolerant landscape from our Lawnbusters Program.

What is the most important thing or things you have learned from being involved with Our City Forest?

I learned that neighborhoods with trees have less crime. (Didn't realize that before.)  

What message would you want to give your community about environmental stewardship or something else you think is important?

My message to the community would be: (1) Stop buying bottled water! The bottles litter our land and oceans!; (2) Do not litter! Pick up after yourselves!; and (3) Plant a tree to clean the air and give you joy!

What is your favorite plant or tree?

I have many favorite plants: clevelandii sage. I have one in my front yard. It is beautiful and bees love it! Also, purple fountain grass, Mexican feather grass and flax. For trees, autumn fantasy maples, redbuds, pepper trees, coast live oaks and redwoods.

Thank you for all you have done to exemplify OCF's mission, Sharon!

To learn more about our Tree Amigo program and how to become one:

Interview with AmeriCorps Service Member Emma

Meet one of our local Our City Forest (OCF) full time Americorps service members: Emma. She has been serving with OCF for three (yes, three!) terms now. Her sister used to work here at OCF as well. 

She is part of the Lawn Busters team at OCF, and is often busy designing landscapes and converting properties into beautiful native gardens. In this interview we talk about what its been like to serve with AmeriCorps for the past 3 terms, giving back to the community, and the future beyond. 

We interviewed Emma to find out more about her time with OCF.

1. Do you have a favorite shrub/tree?

   Emma: Oh my gosh that's such a good question, I think that I do. Well I have a lot of favorites, but one that just came to mind is Salvia Bee’s Bliss. It's very beautiful. A low growing sage. The bees love it, and I love the bees.
   

2. Tell us about yourself. Anything you want people to know about you?

   Emma: I’m from the Hudson Valley in New York State. I went to a small liberal arts school in the western part of North Carolina called Warren Wilson college. It's a really special school because its a work college so every student on campus also had a job on campus. That made it a really meaningful, unique experience and I really loved it. I also learned about beekeeping there, which has become a very big passion of mine since then. I’m a beekeeper and have been keeping bees for three or four years now and I started doing that working at the garden on my college campus. I was caring for the hives there. I've been a member with OCF for a year and a half now, and this is my third Americorps term at Our City Forest. 
   

3. What made you want to become an AmeriCorps member?
   Emma: I think that AmeriCorps was really appealing to me because it provides  great job experience. I also feel really inspired by giving back to the community that I’m a part of. I just wanted to try something new and engage closely with the community. 
   

4. How did you get involved with OCF?
   Emma: Well, actually, my sister was an AmeriCorps member for two years and afterwards she was hired as the Nursery Manager and she really really loved her experience and would talk to me about it a lot. I was at a transitional time in my life and I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted to do, so she encouraged me to apply for OCF specifically. It sounded like a lot of fun and a great experience.
   

5. What is your favorite part about being a full time service member here at Our City Forest?
   Emma: It's definitely building really strong connections with community members and volunteers. I think that's the most important thing that we do; engaging the community so that they can continue to support our mission by being more sensitive to their water usage, learning about why native plants are important, why creating ecosystems are important, the benefits of trees, and all those things. That's probably the most rewarding part for me, to be able to teach people about all those things and engage them in what we do. 
   

6. What made you want to sign on for multiple terms?
   Emma: I felt like after my first term, which was just a six month term, I was just getting started taking advantage of all the opportunities that Our City Forest has to offer. I felt like I had already learned so much in such a short amount of time, that I really had only just started to know about the plants and all the things that we do. I felt like I wasn't really done learning yet, and I've just had such a wonderful experience here and it's been so much fun and I've met so many wonderful special people that will be lifelong friends. I just cant stop serving. 
   

7. So before you started serving you had no background in urban forestry or anything related?
   Emma: I had done a bunch of landscaping work and some farming too on the garden at my campus. So that was agriculture based. But I've always been interested in plants and growing plants, just not specifically California natives.
   

8. What advice/tips would you tell someone who is interested in joining the Our City Forest AmeriCorps team?
   Emma: I would say just to take in as much as you possibly can. And, don't expect that you're going to know everything right away. Just give yourself space to learn from others and be patient with yourself. It may seem really overwhelming at first; I showed up with very little knowledge about the plants or how to plant a tree. The amount of knowledge that I’ve learned just by keeping my eyes open and being receptive to other people's perspectives has been a really really meaningful experience for me. 
   

9. Where do you see yourself taking the experience you’ve gotten from Our City Forest in the future?
   Emma: I think I'll always pursue a career that has a close community engagement aspect to it. I think that it's really really important at this time that we’re all living in to form deep connections with the communities that we’re a part of. These are skills I will use in the future no matter what I do. I also hope to pursue a career in landscaping design, and I’ve learned a lot about that by serving here.

10. Have you met someone through Our City Forest that has inspired you?
    Emma: So many people! I would say the person who has made the biggest impact on me is definitely Edgar (our Lawnbuster and Stewardship Manager). I think that he’s just a really really amazing person and a great leader and mentor. I really admire the way that he teaches people with such a peaceful attitude. He gives people space to figure things out on their own. I've just learned so much from him and I'm really grateful for that. I also really appreciate all of the other members I’ve met here too and how passionate everyone is about our common goal to make this world a better place. 

Thank you to Emma for all that you do with Our City Forest, we deeply appreciate your continued dedication and service to OCF, and wish you all the best in the future! 

If Emma’s interview inspired you to become an Americorps member, head to http://www.ourcityforest.org/americorps-openings to sign up for one of the two upcoming service terms, starting on January 14th and March 24th. Or, if you’d like to volunteer with us, you can check out various volunteering opportunities at ourcityforest.org/calendar !