Florida Forest Health Improvement Initiative.  The Florida Division of Forestry recently announced the Florida Forest Health Improvement Initiative.  The goal of this grant program is to improve the overall health of community forests.  Funding will be used to provide grants to local governments, non-profit groups, and educational institutions, as much as $24,000 each with no matching requirement. Approximately 60% of the available funds will be awarded for tree planting projects on public lands. The concepts of Right Tree/Right Place and use of native species will be emphasized. The remaining funds will be awarded for remedial pruning to improve the health of existing publicly owned trees, treatments such as soil aeration to improve tree stability and nutrient uptake, and a limited amount for removal of hazardous trees.  Grant recipients will have to hire private vendors to provide trees and perform these treatments.  Total funding for this initiative equals $1,570,000. The Request for Proposal will be available on-line (www.fl-dof.com) by November 25, with an application deadline of February 12. The contact person for this initiative is Charles Marcus, who can be reached at 850/921-0300, or marcusc@doacs.state.fl.us.