Get the latest Syracuse news delivered right to your inbox.
Subscribe to our newsletter here.

Between high-rise buildings and freeways, there’s little room for nature in urban areas. But for the past 17 years, Onondaga Earth Corps has worked to change the concrete environment of cities for the better, by planting trees.

“The green industry in general is underrepresented, and especially the green industry’s role in urban settings,” said program specialist Kate Littlefield, a SUNY-ESF graduate who has worked at OEC since September.

Since 2005, OEC has been helping young adults in the Syracuse area make a difference in their community through environmental service. The program, which hired 58 new youth members in 2021 alone, is active in a wide variety of local environmental projects, including tree-planting initiatives, park beautification and the construction of stormwater management systems.

“We’re a nonprofit in the city who hires a lot of community members from typically underserviced areas,” said Littlefield. “We’re hiring people in Syracuse to do the work in their own communities. So instead of the city hiring a contractor, they hire us, which is cool because it’s kind of a closed-loop system.”

Young people enter OEC either as members of the youth program, which includes all members aged 16-18, or the young adult program, for those aged 19-25. Both programs boast an “earn to learn” system, meaning that all members are paid as employees and make an hourly wage while building skills in landscaping, leadership and public outreach.

Members generally work on a seasonal basis, either working in the spring, fall or summer, and are encouraged to return for multiple seasons and eventually take on leadership roles, according to a form on the OEC website.

“The crew members have a job here,” said Megan Gorss, an administrative assistant at OEC who is also a SUNY-ESF graduate. “They get paid, it’s a normal job, but then on top of that, it’s a priority of the staff and the organization in general to provide services connecting crew members with other organizations, so that they can continue to succeed in life in general.”

In the past, Gorss said, these services have included helping members gain employment at other environmental organizations, assisting members with college applications and even working to secure a driver’s license for a member whose job hunt required one.

Danny Khan | Design Editor

Recently, OEC hired a personal development coordinator in order to help members succeed outside of their work with the organization. This position, a full-time staff role, is currently held by a former youth member.

Once hired, members work in crews to perform important local environmental services such as weeding, mulching, tree planting and tree pruning. Much of their work takes place in areas of Syracuse where urban forestry has been significantly neglected due to redlining and other municipal issues, Littlefield said.

They said that it tends to be hotter in these formerly redlined low-income communities and communities of color, there are higher rates of asthma due to more contaminants in the air that cause upper respiratory issues, and there’s more flooding because of a lack of green infrastructure.

“So all of those things and more are big environmental justice issues that OEC is actively working with the city and other groups to combat, and I’d say that’s one of the biggest things,” Littlefield said.

The goal of the city’s Urban Forest Master Plan, a 20-year program for public tree planting and maintainence, is to generally increase the percent tree cover in Syracuse, Gorss said. A commitment to environmental justice and equitably distributing trees in the city is the only way to do that, they said.

In addition to tree planting, the OEC contributes key tree maintenance efforts to the Urban Forest Master Plan. The plan points out that 700 trees have to be removed annually in the Syracuse area, and maintenance efforts provided by the OEC reduce the likelihood of trees needing to be removed.

“One thing I’m really proud of is the pruning,” said Eh Moemo Qui, a crew leader at OEC. “We did clear a lot of trees. Some of them were growing under wires, and we cut through there. Of course, it doesn’t look nice after you cut a tree in the middle, but you have to, to prevent the tree from growing through the wire and causing future problems.”

Initiatives like Qui’s pruning campaign may seem small in scale, but they are vital to the Urban Forest Master Plan.

The plan was designed by the Syracuse Department of Parks, Recreation, and Youth Programs, OEC and a steering committee composed of representatives from other local groups, including SUNY-ESF. It describes OEC’s pruning program as “essential” and estimates that OEC was responsible for 65 to 70% of public tree plantings in Syracuse between 2012 and 2020. Last year, the organization planted 1,471 trees and shrubs in the city and surrounding areas.

In 2022, OEC hopes to strengthen local programs like these rather than expand outside of the Syracuse area. This includes continued work in places like Schiller Park and the Onondaga Creekwalk, as well as in the organization’s network of rain gardens and green infrastructure sites.

“We have so many gems of parks in Syracuse, but for so long, they’ve been unmaintained, which kind of deters people from using them,” Littlefield said. “So in a way we’re playing catch up, but they’re such great resources and they’re located all over the city. I think people forget that they can go and find nature in Syracuse itself. So many people don’t even know about Burnet Park or Schiller Park, and there’s just a lot of cool stuff there.”

Syracuse University and SUNY-ESF students are able to get involved with OEC in a variety of ways, either as members or volunteers. The organization runs several volunteer events during the year and maintains a working relationship with both universities, Gorss said.

“I’ve heard from ESF professors that OEC isn’t involved as much as they would like to see, and I would agree there’s a lot of room for partnerships,” Littlefield said. “Logistically we have to work some things out with that, but we often hold volunteer events catered to ESF — we’re happy to do it catered to SU as well.”

Published on April 25, 2022 at 12:44 am