Community Self-Assessment Tool for 2025 Technical Support from the Georgia Forestry Commission

Overview and Eligibility for Support

The Georgia Forestry Commission’s (GFC) Urban and Community Forestry Program wants to ensure that each applicant is aware of and requests the most strategic support possible. In addition to specific projects, a second year of new technical support is now available. Support includes tree canopy mapping, planning, management and policies. More details are at the end of this survey.

This assessment must be completed before applying for assistance from the GFC and its contractor, the Green Infrastructure Center. Please fill out this self-assessment tool to match your needs with our tools, in order to ensure you are asking for the right support that will most closely meet your community’s urban forestry needs. This support can be provided in addition to a specific project.

After answering the questions, review your results and indicate which (if any) of the types of technical support your community would like to receive. Technical support available is found at the end of this survey. Once you complete the online survey we will have a record of your application. If you are unable to complete this on-line survey due to any form of disability, request a digital or paper version from Seth Hawkins Seth Hawkins

You will be contacted in January 2025 to discuss your request and support availability. While this is a competitive application, we aim to support as many applicants as possible. This application is due by Jan. 10, 2025. Work will begin in 2025.

Eligibility: Any GA municipal agency (cities and towns with populations of 50,000 or less) are eligible to apply for this technical support.

If your community received support in the past year you can still apply for new support to advance your community's urban forestry program. For example, you received a canopy map and this year you want to model ecosystem services the canopy provides and create a goal and planting plan.

The bulk of available funding will be available for communities that include areas identified as disadvantaged. To determine this please see Link to map of disadvantaged communities

However, there may be additional funds for communities who do not qualify as disadvantaged so all communities with a population of 50,000 and under are encouraged to apply.

WAIT! Before starting this survey there are several things to know in order to answer all the questions in one sitting. This survey does not allow you to save work and come back later. It must be completed in one session. Gather the following information before you start in order to get through all the questions. Once you have gathered this information, the survey should take no longer than 20 minutes to complete.

1) Does your locality have a digital tree canopy coverage map/data? How old is the data (what year created)?

2) Does your city have a tree inventory? When was it collected and for which areas? (entire city, neighborhood?)

3) Does your city have an urban forest management plan or forest master plan? How old is the plan (what year was it created)?

4) Does your city have an storm mitigation plan? How old is the plan (what year was it created)?

5) Does your city employ an arborist? If not, that’s okay too.

6) What is the racial and ethnic makeup of people served?

Please be advised that if your answer to all # 1-5 of the above is “no,” that’s okay! Technical assistance grants are being provided to help your community answer “yes” to most or all of these questions in the future!

For question 4 within this survey, be sure to engage with the right staff or leadership from your community to ensure you can apply for assistance on behalf of your city, town, or municipality.

How will we rank your application? We will award points for communities containing disadvantaged communities. 5 points are awarded for 25% disadvantaged communities, 10 points for 50% disadvantaged communities and 15 points for 75% or greater disadvantaged communities based on the map: CEJST Map We will consider the geography (area) and total population of disadvantaged persons in assigning points.
Total Points Possible: 15

Additional 1-5 points for communities who articulate how they plan to use the results of the assistance for real community needs (e.g. we plan to use the canopy map to update our comprehensive plan or to set a canopy goal.). Total Points Possible: 5

Even if your community contains no disadvantaged communities, please do still apply as we are able to tap additional, unrestricted funds to support more communities.