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This book addresses the nuts and bolts of planning and preserving natural assets at a variety of scales--from dense urban environments to scenic rural landscapes. A practical guide to creating effective and well-crafted plans and then implementing them, the book presents a six-step process developed and field-tested by the Green Infrastructure Center in Charlottesville, Virginia. Well-organized chapters explain how each step, from setting goals to implementing opportunities, can be applied to a variety of scenarios, customizable to the reader's target geographical location.
Grant funding from the USDA Forest Service provided for a high-resolution analysis of the tree canopy and land cover of the city of Baltimore. The resulting assessment will serve as a long-term green infrastructure and planning template for Baltimore City planners and their conservation partners.
Trees and vegetation in cities aren’t just there to make the place look pretty. They have an important ecological function. This book contains studies and perspectives on urban forests from a broad array of basic and applied scientific disciplines including ecosystem ecology, biogeochemistry, landscape ecology, plant community ecology, geography, and social science. The book includes contributions from experts around the world, allowing the reader to evaluate methods and management that are appropriate for particular geographic, environmental, and socio-political contexts.
An analysis of trees in New York City reveals that this city has about 5.2 million trees with canopies that cover 20.9 percent of the area. The most common tree species are tree of heaven, black cherry, and sweetgum. The urban forest currently stores about 1.35 million tons of carbon valued at $24.9 million. In addition, these trees remove about 42,300 tons of carbon per year ($779,000 per year) and about 2,202 tons of air pollution per year ($10.6 million per year). The structural, or compensatory, value is estimated at $5.2 billion. Information on the structure and functions of the urban forest can be used to improve and augment support for urban forest management programs and to integrate urban forests within plans to improve environmental quality in the New York City area.
Urban forests are fundamental to the health and sustainability of urban communities. In 2012, the U.S. Forest Service launched the Vibrant Cities, Urban Forests: A National Call to Action initiative which posed a variety of recommendations to advance urban forest management and programs throughout the country. In response to that initiative, the Portland-Vancouver Metropolitan Regional Urban Forestry Strategy was created. Under the Strategy, project partners are focused on fostering regional collaboration around trees and expanding the management capacity of the urban forest by completing a variety of objectives such as needs assessment survey, stakeholder workshops, and local projects focused on the health of the urban forest as a whole. As part of the Strategy, a needs assessment survey was sent to 350 community officials and program managers in the 30 cities and four counties in the Portland-Vancouver region to identify current trends in urban forestry attitudes and practices. Results indicated that, in general, urban forestry programs were important to community officials and program managers alike with both expressing an avid interest in implementing and expanding tree programs. Program components relating to tree health were regarded as the most important items to an urban forestry program by respondents; however, management components such as a certified arborist, a tree board, and an urban forest management plan were considered least important, and respondents indicated that their jurisdictions had been least successful in achieving these items. Difficulty exists in implementing or expanding programs in the Portland-Vancouver region due to inadequate funding and lack of political and public support, but respondents indicated that increased community education and the creation or revision of urban forest management plans and tree related ordinances were priorities for their jurisdictions. Survey results will serve to inform the development of the Regional Urban Forestry Strategy and contribute to professional knowledge and urban forestry activities occurring in the region. In addition, this research provides interesting insight into attitudes and practices surrounding urban forest management which are applicable to federal, state, and local programs. These programs can use the results of this study to re-examine current areas of focus to better direct resources and assistance to those areas of need in the Portland-Vancouver Region. Although many challenges to increasing the management capacity of the urban forest in the study area were identified by this research, additional opportunities to improve the livability of this urban ecosystem were recognized. By advancing current and future urban forestry efforts in the region, this research aims to help local jurisdictions achieve successful urban forestry programs that increase the health of our urban forests while reaping the ecosystem benefits trees provide.
More than half the world's population now lives in cities. Creating sustainable, healthy and aesthetic urban environments is therefore a major policy goal and research agenda. This comprehensive handbook provides a global overview of the state of the art and science of urban forestry. It describes the multiple roles and benefits of urban green areas in general and the specific role of trees, including for issues such as air quality, human well-being and stormwater management. It reviews the various stresses experienced by trees in cities and tolerance mechanisms, as well as cultural techniques for either pre-conditioning or alleviating stress after planting. It sets out sound planning, design, species selection, establishment and management of urban trees. It shows that close interactions with the local urban communities who benefit from trees are key to success. By drawing upon international state-of-art knowledge on arboriculture and urban forestry, the book provides a definitive overview of the field and is an essential reference text for students, researchers and practitioners.
This multidisciplinary book covers all aspects of planning, designing, establishing and managing forests and trees and forests in and near urban areas, with chapters by experts in forestry, horticulture, landscape ecology, landscape architecture and even plant pathology. Beginning with historical and conceptual basics, the coverage includes policy, design, implementation and management of forestry for urban populations.