Urban Forest Management for Communities
All the components for Urban Forest Management are eligible for UCF grant funding, including professional assistance to develop and manage the tools, and to help communicate the information to the leadership and residents of the community.
Having a healthy and valuable urban forest requires more than planting trees. Planning for and around your urban forest takes time and effort:
- input and commitment from multiple municipal departments;
- including trees at the planning stage; and
- budgeting for maintenance, removal, planting, and staff.
But to do so effectively means know what you have, and what tools are needed. The Urban Tree Management for Community Benefits guide breaks it down into several components and explains the importance of each element and the tools needed:
KNOW WHAT YOU HAVE |
PLAN AND MANAGE |
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PLAN & MANAGE
To manage the community forest there are several tools that are necessary to do it effectively.
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MANAGEMENT PLANS:
If data is needed to manage a community forest, the parks, municipal facilities, and street trees, then it needs to be incorporated into a plan. Management Plans (or Tree or Urban Master Plans) establish the vision and goals for the future of a community forest. A plan is based on the knowledge of the existing forest and can incorporate annual work plans and budgets, implementation schedules, policy and procedure manuals, standards and specifications, public education and monitoring plans, and plan and ordinance revision schedule. Even Homeowner’s Associations should have a plan on how to manage their trees.
A plan outlines future management of the community's trees and forests, addresses the planning, planting, protecting, conservation, storm damage mitigation, and maintenance of community trees. Having a written plan ensures that as time passes, staffing changes, supporting or conflicting concerns arise, the plan can be reviewed, adapted or updated to continue to meet the needs and goals of the community.
Where trees are a priority to a community, having a management plan and emphasizing in the plan, and other municipal planning documents, that trees are an essential part of the community infrastructure and the role they play in stormwater mitigation, human health, etc., may be helpful at the emergency planning and response phase (see #4 below).
What your community needs in a plan is very much related to the level or degree of management and, often, the level of funding. There is more to developing a management plan than hiring a consultant to write a plan for you. It is very important to know what kind of plan your community needs at its present capacity. For example, a broad visionary plan will not help a community that struggles to get funding approved for basic tree maintenance, so developing a plan that can help advance your urban forestry program is paramount. It needs to be an active document, not something that sits on a shelf.
Sometimes a limited approach to a plan can be a place to start, perhaps a plan for addressing risk trees, or a strategic planting plan like Pawtucket, RI. But more and more municipal staff understand the importance of urban forest planning, like the American Public Works Association's (APWA) Best Management Plans (BMP) for Urban Forestry includes the need for Management Plans.
To understand the three main types of urban forest plans check out these resources, to better determine what type of plan or components that would best serve your community:
PLANNING & MANAGING: Plans for Urban Forests is a workshop presentation that describes the three main approaches to urban tree plans, their components and their use.
A Guide to Urban Forest Plans has a similar approach to the workshop although organized differently, but goes in-depth into the main approaches and outcomes.
If you watch the presentation and review the plan guide above you will recognize the different approaches in the plans below and how communities develop a plan that organizes and communicate their goals. Note that a five-year maintenance plan may not typically be available online as it tends to be an internal planning document. But for some communities that may be an important first step to long-term planning.
- Urban Forest Management Plan – Saratoga Springs, NY (see appendix for budget discussion)
- Urban Forest Management Plan – Wake Forest, NC
- Healthy Forest, Healthy City – Cambridge, MA
- Urban Forest Strategic Plan – Shoreline, WA
- Urban Forest Master Plan – Worcester, MA
- Tree & Shade Master Plan – Phoenix, AZ
- Urban Forest Master Plan – Pittsburgh, PA
- Urban Forestry Management Plan – Davis, CA (check out operations and funding section)
- Urban Forestry Management Plan Toolkit takes you through the process of developing a management plan with all the components that should be included and discussed by stakeholders.
- Developing a Street and Park Tree Management Plan as older resource but specifically targeting smaller communities.
- Urban Horticulture Institute: Community Forestry Planning
- Penn State: Community Tree Plans
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TREE ORDINANCES:
Ordinances define how to manage and care for public and/or privately-owned trees and demonstrate commitment to, and responsibilities for, the community forest. Ordinances regarding tree management, protection and design/development can be stand-alone or included in other ordinances or comprehensive plans. They establish how trees are managed, specifications for design and installation, how existing trees are protected during disturbance, and who maintains authority over the trees. They can also include private tree concerns such as private liability/public nuisance.
A tree ordinance can go by many different names including "Street Tree Ordinance", "Tree Protection Ordinance", "Tree Preservation Ordinance", "Landscape Ordinance", or "Beautification Ordinance" depending on the level of policy being set. (The focus of a tree protection ordinance is the regulation of the removal or establishment of trees by establishing definitions, procedures, penalties, and appeals necessary for enforcement. A Tree Preservation Ordinance may be included in or be separate from the Tree Ordinance.)
RI Guide to Street Tree Ordinances takes you through the minimum elements of a basic tree ordinance. By including the clauses establishing a Tree Board, this template would meet the requirements for recognition as a Tree City USA.
APWA also has its own recommended BMPs for Ordinances, Regulations, & Public Policies, highlighting the importance to Public Works Managers.
It may be tempting for a community to rely on another community’s ordinance as a template, or even to adopt it with minor revisions. But every community has its own needs and challenges that require language specific to the community and its structure and capacity. That is why there are many resources/references available for ordinance creation.
This is also a good reason why you may want to consider a grant to assist with hiring a professional to develop or update your Tree Ordinance: a professional consultant can help you develop an ordinance that meets the needs of your community, with the right level of complexity for the community staffing and enforcement capacity. A consultant can also help create the specifications for tree species, planting and removals, landscaping and buffering, etc.
ISA: Tree Ordinance Guidelines
NC State: Developing Successful Tree Ordinances
Developing Tree Protection Ordinances: while the authorities for such an ordinance may be specific to the state referenced, the context and goals are still relevant.
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URBAN TREE CANOPY ASSESSMENTS:
An Urban Tree Canopy (UTC) Assessment is different from an urban tree inventory. UTC studies of tree canopies are based on the computer-aided interpretation of aerial photographs or satellite imagery. UTC data tend to be very precise regarding the location of trees and the extent of tree canopy. However, unlike a tree inventory, UTC analyses cannot provide detailed information on individual tree species or condition, or management needs.
A tree canopy assessment can quantify how much of a community's land area is covered by trees, identify the location of those trees, and identify where there are opportunities to plant trees. They also determine the amount and location of impervious cover. Canopy cover can be assessed by watershed, zoning or land use category, political boundary, neighborhood, business district, census tract, or individual parcel. Results of an assessment can be evaluated through the lens of specific needs and can provide a blueprint of available and unavailable tree planting and conservation opportunities.
When considering a canopy assessment, ask these questions:
1. Do you have an urban tree inventory or are you trying to make the argument that one is needed?
2. Are you a small community or a large one? What kind of budget or staffing do you have?
3. How large of an area do you want to assess?
4. What is your capacity? Do you rely on GIS map layers for managing, making decisions and communicating with other departments? Are you able to use the information you get? Do you have the budget, staff time, software re-quired, technical expertise to input and interpret?
A UTC Assessment can help increase awareness of the urban forest, with concrete information to engage and discuss with decision makers to understand their urban forest resources, such as the amount of tree canopy that currently exists and the amount that could exist. Periodic assessments can be used to track and compare charges to the urban forest over time which can be the basis for planning or for assessing the impact of existing management. It also can:
- identify vulnerable populations that lack equal opportunities to experience urban green space and understand patterns of environmental justice;
- allow communities to prioritize planting/greening goals based on social, economic, and ecological criteria such as flooding, wildlife habitat, urban heat island/heat stress, public health (e.g., asthma), crime, income, and other variables;
- form tree canopy goals and prioritize locations for tree planting efforts;
- establish urban forestry master plans, inform sustainability plans, and justify budgets;
- track change in the urban forest over time, and goal success;
- can be used to show the value of ecosystem services provided to the community.
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EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT PLANS
Emergency management is always in one for four phases: Preparedness, Response, Recovery, and Mitigation.
Preparedness is the essential step, and the longest one, to be ready for a disaster and to have a plan that guides your community through the process. Any plan should align and support the Municipal Management Plan and may be a standalone document or part of the existing emergency plan for the community. The first goal of preparedness is avoidance: to avoid or limit damage to, or by, trees during a storm or other catastrophic event.
Based on the tree inventory: maintaining a tree pruning and tree removal schedule to reduce debris from already compromised trees through proactive maintenance, can include prioritizing access routes for hospitals and emergency responders. This helps reduce failure risk and post-event cleanup costs.
Based on the management plan: identifying the roles of municipal staff, equipment needs and priorities; establishing standing contracts for clean-up; planning debris locations, access and security. These steps should be discussed, clearly understood, and mapped for all municipal staff and for communicating with contractors for cleanup. Development of information and tools for the public for their own response to event recovery (such as a prepared website and materials that can immediately be activated prior to the event).
If a community isn’t ready in advance of an emergency event then response and recovery will be much slower and less effective, not to mention more damaging and more costly. If FEMA rules are not followed, the community may not be able to be reimbursed for their clean-up costs should the event be a federally-declared disaster. The Emergency Plan should also emphasize the infrastructure role of their trees, as established and discussed in the Management Plan and other municipal plans, as that may also provide justification to allow for FEMA funding to assist with recovery and restoring some of the urban canopy lost in the event.
Planning can pay off and is worth the time and effort.
TO BETTER UNDERSTAND THE EMERGENCY PLANNING PROCESS
- STORM MITIGATION PLANNING guides the basic steps in the planning process:
- Tree Risk Assessment
- Standing Contracts
- Debris Management Sites
- Not sure where to start? Check out this chart.
- Storm Ready: the benefits of pre-contracts
- Storm Debris Calculator Tool: excel file downloads directly to your computer
READY TO COMPLETE A COMPLETE PLAN? or revise your existing plan?
Community Forest Storm Mitigation Planning: The Community Forest Storm Mitigation Planning Workbooks and the accompanying Community Forest Storm Mitigation Planning Template can help your community assess forest storm readiness; mitigate tree risk and reduce tree-related storm damage; and develop a forest storm mitigation plan.
The workbooks guide you through how to fill in the template, which serves as a basic framework for developing a Community Forest Storm Mitigation Plan.
Community Forest Storm Mitigation Planning Template