Project Team
James Kaechele
Program Manager, Tree Time
Gennie Moralez
Greening Central Queens Stewardship Coordinator, NYC Parks Stewardship
genevieve.moralez.parks.nyc.gov
Gennie (she/her) is the Greening Central Queens Stewardship Coordinator. She collaborates with the Elmhurst, Corona, and Jackson Heights community to plan and lead street tree care events, tree planting events, free tree distributions, and other stewardship opportunities.
Gennie grew up in The Bronx, around the corner from Yankee Stadium. She obtained her Environmental Studies and Geoscience degree from Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, NY. After graduating, she moved to Seoul, South Korea to teach English and then explored the cultures of East and South East Asia during a six-month backpacking trip. Upon returning to NYC, Gennie worked with the Zero Waste Program at GrowNYC. She now lives in Jamaica, Queens where she enjoys community gardening and volunteering at the farm & compost site at Queens Botanical Garden.
Matt Carras
Community Coordinator, Tree Time
matthew.carras@parks.nyc.gov
Matt (he/him) is a Community Coordinator with Tree Time’s Stewarding Canopy and Community in Central Queens. He is a graduate of SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry where he studied Environmental Biology. After a brief stint as a ski patroller, he worked in California as a Forestry Technician. He joined the NYC Parks Department in 2023 as a Forester for the Trees and Sidewalks Team and will be celebrating his three-year anniversary with Parks next month.
Megan Ganning
Municipal Forestry Technician, Tree Time
megan.ganning@parks.nyc.gov
Megan (she/her) is the Municipal Forestry Technician with NYC Parks Tree Time Team. She cares for recently planted street trees (watering, pruning, removing debris, laying down mulch), supports in leading stewardship and tree census events, surveys for and tracks street tree planting under the SCCCQ project, manages tree guard and tree dedication requests, engages with constituents, empowering them to care for the urban forest, and provides general support while shadowing urban forestry professionals. She studied Environmental Science, Economics, and Spanish at Bucknell University (Lewisburg, PA) and in joining Parks has made an exciting career transition from over six years in the financial services sector. Outside of work, Megan sings in a band ‘Sparkbug’ and an a cappella group ‘Basic Pitch’, hikes, tends to the McCarren Demonstration Garden, and enjoys arts and crafts – especially scrapbooking, drawing, and painting.
Our Partners
Trees New York
Project Partner Trees New York (Trees NY) has a mission to plant, preserve, and protect New York City’s urban forest through education and community participation. Trees NY was founded in 1976 as a volunteer response to the city’s devastating cutbacks in forestry and tree-related community services.
Trees NY takes a community-based approach to programming and partners with local volunteers, community organizations, business improvement districts, schools, and afterschool program sites. Trees New York also has longstanding partnerships with the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, NYC Parks Tree Time, and the New York City Housing Authority.
Trees NY has a strong track record with their Youth Environmental Literacy Program, working with on average 2,300 public school students per year from all five boroughs. Since its founding, TreesNY has trained over 11,500 adults and 6,000 youth in tree care and stewardship.
Trees NY will annually conduct their Citizen Pruner Course to train and license 25 new citizen pruners from the project area each year. The comprehensive curriculum of the Citizen Pruner Course includes tree care, biology, identification, common problems and solutions, and pruning. A combination of indoor and outdoor training is designed to provide students with the opportunity to practice pruning with their peers under the guidance of their environmental educator. Upon successful completion of the final exam, participants will receive a license from Trees New York and NYC Parks to legally prune NYC street trees. Trees NY is offers an $85 scholarship, reducing the Citizen Pruner course fee to only $15!
City Parks Foundation: Partnership for Parks
Since 1995, as a program of City Parks Foundation, Partnerships for Parks has equipped people, organizations and government with the necessary skills and resources to transform green spaces into dynamic community assets. Partnerships for Parks will support Central Queens stewards by providing unique opportunities for them to learn leadership and organizational development skills, network and share best practices with stewards from across NYC, and develop clear goals and action plans to help grow and sustain community tree care efforts in Corona, Elmhurst, and Jackson Heights into the future. They will be able to build on existing tree care efforts by learning how to: engage new stewards; connect with neighborhood institutions; leverage additional resources; promote tree care activities; and develop relationships with key decision makers.
The Partnerships Academy Central Queens Coordinator will serve as a liaison between the Partnerships Academy Team (Workshops and Fellowship) and other project staff including the Community Advisory Committee. The focus of this coordinator will be to support the work of emerging community leaders and participants of Partnerships Academy, while providing additional technical assistance to groups within the project area.