NATIONAL URBAN HEAT + URBAN FORESTRY ACCELERATOR RETREAT
OCTOBER 11-13, 2023 | CLEVELAND, OHIO
IN-PERSON TRAINING + COMMUNITY-BUILDING
On October 12th-13th, the Center for Regenerative Solutions (CRS) will host an in-person retreat for 50 representatives of the 16 community teams who participated in the first-ever Urban Nature-Based Climate Solutions Accelerator.
Building on more than three years’ of work growing a nature-based solutions field of practice within the 276 city & county members of the Urban Sustainability Directors Network (USDN), CRS developed and launched the Accelerator in 2022 to help rapidly advance efforts pioneering the intersection of urban forestry as an equity-centered climate action and heat mitigation strategy.
In anticipation of the historic $1B federal funding opportunity launched by the US Forest Service in May 2023, the Accelerator was designed to help prepare participating communities to develop comprehensive urban forestry strategies that can both reduce heat and other climate-related risks and create equity-centered community and economic development opportunities. All of the lectures and resources that were shared are available to anyone in our online resource library.
The 2022/23 Accelerator community will gather in Cleveland, Ohio on Oct 11-13, 2023 as the final culmination of our inaugural Urban Heat + Urban Forestry Accelerator training sequence.
Our Retreat Agenda includes three broad areas of activity:
Workshops on tools, systems and strategies related to urban forestry, urban heat management, equity-centered forestry as community development, and leading edge urban forestry policy.
Peer review and collaboration sessions to finalize urban forestry as urban heat management strategies in preparation for pursuing funding and implementation support
Briefings on the funding mechanisms now becoming available to support the implementation of these strategies.
A Huge Thanks to Our Accelerator Partners & Retreat Sponsors
The Urban Nature-Based Climate Solutions Accelerator is made possible by the following accelerator funders, retreat sponsors, and partner organizations. Thank you to the J.M. Kaplan Fund, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and the Volgenau Climate Initiative for your strategic investments in advancing the national urban forestry movement. Our retreat sponsors Cambium Carbon, Davey Tree, PlanIT Geo, and Rid-All Green Partnership have helped to make this retreat accessible to all who wanted to attend. And, of course, our ongoing appreciation goes out to CRS’s Accelerator partners: Urban Sustainability Directors Network, Trust for Public Land, and City of Boulder, CO.
