Barborinas Family Fund Grant Program

Barborinas Family Fund Grant Program

Status: ACTIVE
Funder: Tree Fund
Amount: US $5,000 - US $10,000
Last Updated: January 17, 2026

Summary

The Barborinas Family Fund Grant Program supports research aimed at advancing tree production and transplanting techniques, particularly focusing on enhancing root systems for urban environments. Founded by Jim and Annie Barborinas, the fund prioritizes innovative methods that improve the establishment success of trees, ensuring they are planting-ready without requiring further manipulation. Grants will also explore the development of diverse tree species, addressing challenges in propagation and acceptance within the industry.

Overview

Barborinas Family Fund Grant Program Jim and Annie Barborinas are legends in the nursery industry, having worked throughout the Puget Sound Region with large and small communities, landscape architects, engineers, developers, housing authorities, school districts and private citizens on many urban forest issues. Jim, Annie and their family own and operate Urban Forest Nursery, a highly regarded 32-acre wholesale tree nursery in Washington’s Skagit Valley region, specializing in growing high quality street and landscape trees. Their trees are specifically selected and grown for characteristics that complement the limited planting spaces and adverse conditions typical of urban planting sites today. Through their consulting business, as well as their long history of producing street and landscape trees in fabric growbags for the wholesale industry, they have seen the need to improve production techniques for improved root growth and establishment. As a direct result of their nursery experiences and in testimony to their commitment to sound tree science, Jim and Annie founded and were the principal funders (with support from the Pacific Northwest Chapter of the International Society of Arboriculture) of the Barborinas Family Fund, which will award grants for research focused on tree production, planting and transplanting techniques, and the improvement of tree varieties for urban conditions, to focus on root science. Mechanical root manipulation that includes cutting, slicing, pulling and spreading roots to encourage and release root growth beyond the original root-ball is critical to administer to defective root-balls, but too often does not take place, contributing to the demise of the tree. This research should focus on developing root systems and trees that are planting ready at the time of transfer to the landscape installation industry and not dependent on root-ball corrections so they can grow properly and become well established long loved, mature trees. The focus of the Jim and Annie Barborinas Fund is to study the processes of the nursery industry with the goal to research how to create a root system and above ground structure of the tree that is planting ready and require no additional work on the part of the installer to manipulate the roots or stem structure. Grants should study the production of root and stem system from the first steps of seedlings, tissue culture, and the various methods of cultivar propagation to liner production and onto final tree production that lead to the sale and transfer of the tree to the landscape installation industry. This includes the various parts of the transfer process of including re-wholesale ‘nurseries’, and the various root package options including: B&B, containers, fabric growbags, tree spade, bareroot root, gravel bed and other root packages that are part of the production and transfer of trees from the nursery industry to the landscape installation industry. The grants may also support research to expand the diversity of different tree species and cultivars, studying issues with hard to propagate, produce and establish trees, or increasing industry acceptance of new species by identifying and resolving, through research, the roadblocks to acceptance.

Eligibility

You can learn more about this opportunity by visiting the funder's website. Note: The 2026 Barborinas Family Fund Grant will be focused on areas of inquiry as the following (note: this list is not all-inclusive):To develop and improve plant root-ball production and development methods, from seedling, to transplant, to liner, to final root-package such that the tree requires no additional root ball correction at the time of transfer to the landscape installation industry.To develop and improve root health, growth, and density to improve establishment success. This might include early root treatment, unique production methods.

Ineligibility

TREE Fund welcomes research proposals and applications from a wide range of academic and technical disciplines, of both a qualitative and a quantitative nature. TREE Fund does not fund the following types of projects, and will not accept applications for such work:Grants to individuals;Projects that are primarily municipal tree surveys or assessments;Tree planting programs;Studies of individual tree species for the primary purpose of agricultural or timber/forest planting yield;Commercial tree- or soil-related product testing primarily for the benefit of the company that manufactures the product.