Inventories and large metro areas [back to top]
Arizona-Many of the cities and communities which have tree inventories in Arizona use different inventory software. Some use Arbor Day, ACRT, or Davey, and some have developed their own. All are now using GIS and incorporating their data onto city infrastructure maps. Cost for the programs are sometimes paid through grants from the Arizona Urban Forestry program and matched from the city general fund and public works. All of the utilities have inventories of their line trees and some incorporate the city trees as well. -Ron Romatzke, Arizona Department of State Lands
Connecticut's larger communities have been spotty with regards to inventories. On the good news side, both Stamford and New Haven have been developing inventories. Hartford is in the middle. Bridgeport and Waterbury are on the far side with regards to inventory, with the "we have an inventory, it's all in my head" approach to a street and park tree database.
Stamford jumped right on the volunteer inventory concept and the city paid any costs incurred with the project. Dave Bloniarz came down in the mid-nineties and worked with volunteers and representatives of the city, as well as with Fred (the 'original' CT urban forestry coordinator). Together they trained volunteers and then had a blitz day during which they conducted a relatively thorough inventory of the city. The inventory has not been as fully utilized or kept as current as it might be in Stamford, but the reasons are not the usual ones. The city, based partly on the results of the inventory, chose to completely upgrade its tree care department, adding new staff, re-aligning priorities and, in general, taking a major step forward.
New Haven tried a similar approach in the mid-nineties, which didn't work well for them. But they recognized that organizational shortcomings - old school personnel, and a reactionary tree-care policy had more to do with the problem than simply maintaining a tree-inventory database. After some organizational changes, they put a request for an inventory and master tree plan out to bid. ACRT won the bid and has conducted the inventory, and is in the process of working with the city towards the goal of making the inventory work.
Hartford has one of the older inventories in the state developed by the recently retired city forester. The new city forester does not make much use of the old inventory, but is considering updating, or initiating a new one. However, in a budget sense, it probably does not rate high as a priority. -Chris Donnelly, Connecticut Division of Forestry
Hawaii's Honolulu has a pretty sophisticated inventory that includes 250,000 city and county trees. A partnership with the state program, npo's, and the county is working on a Tropical Urban Forestry Master Plan. Trees are a priority with the current mayor and he has made money available. We have many concerns however, with ordinances and communications. -Teresa Trueman-Madriaga, Kaulunani Urban Forestry Program, State of Hawaii, DLNR, Division of Forestry and Wildlife
Nebraska's has two large cities of Omaha and Lincoln. Omaha does not have a formal inventory program or a forester. The city forester retired, and the city has decided not to fill the position. This makes Omaha one of the very few larger cities without a professional forester. Lincoln is presently installing a location-based inventory system that will track trees by address, and hopefully will have GIS capabilities.-Dave Mooter, Nebraska Forest Service
New Mexico's only large metro area tracking trees is Albuquerque. They are using a GPS inventory with city equipment and tree-oriented volunteers. The city offers little or no funding for the project, but will continue to update the data. Other cities, including Clovis and Las Vegas, have done windshield surveys, but they are not being updated. The State Forestry Division loaned them the GPS units to get started. Volunteers help and city computer specialists jumped in to help. Now the city is on its own and doing well. The inventory has already convinced the city council to increase funding to mitigate hazard trees. The City of Las Cruces (second largest in NM) may try a pilot, and is currently seeking funds. In Albuquerque, funding for trees has been cut due to the loss of sales tax revenue to the city. -George Duda, NM State Forestry Division
South Dakota joins other large metro cities in the challenge of conducting and, to a larger degree, maintaining community tree-resource inventories. Communities have difficulty coming up with money and personnel time commitments for inventory because it usually occupies a lower priority ranking with their already stretched budgets and workloads. This is true in South Dakota regardless of the size of the community. In addition, even though boulevards are normally city property, the vegetation on them is the responsibility of the adjoining landowner, except where DED is concerned. The two larger cities have a greater need for park inventories where they have tree management jurisdiction. To encourage more communities to inventory street trees, South Dakota has contracted the Davey Resource Group's "TreeKeeper Online" inventory system. SD pays a base price for seven communities on the system, and the price goes up a bit as we add more to the system. This gives us one system that will be consistent statewide, is accessible to both the community and the state level, and is fairly user friendly. We offer assistance through our U&CF program if a community does not have Internet capability, and use Master Gardeners and community volunteers to do the work.
SD presently has four communities on the system and has four more that have expressed an interest in having an inventory done. The goal is to get 31 communities (10% of the total number) on the system that will give a cross-section of the different population levels and developmental stages of South Dakota communities. That way responses to inquiries about the South Dakota forest resource can be approached with statistical accuracy. -Dan McCormick, SD Department of Agriculture, Resource Conservation & Forestry Division
Washington's larger communities (more than 100,000 people) have inventories. This includes Bellevue, Seattle, Spokane, Tacoma and Vancouver. Generally the cities themselves have funded their inventories (examples included general fund out of the program budget and Parks Department), however, one of the five cities received a community assistance grant from the State Urban and Community Forestry Program. The inventories vary, from a complete inventory of all street trees to simply an inventory of complaints and problematic trees. A couple of the cities have inventories of their park trees and natural area trees as well. One community did not have the resources to update the inventory while all the others were updated to some extent. City staff that use the inventory and manage the trees update the inventory as well. Some inventories are linked to a GIS and coordinated with other city department databases. However, this coordination can also be a shortcoming of the inventory. This report was generated by research done by a graduate student who completed a survey of all the urban forest inventories in the state. - Kevin LeClair, Program Coordinator, U&CF Washington State DNR
Wisconsin--None of the region served by U&CF Coordinator Cynthia Casey qualifies as a large metropolitan area, but the two largest communities, both with a population of 50,000 and both with about 30,000 trees, have the following inventory information:
- One customized an Access-based inventory with the help of local university staff. The community previously had tried Dr. Bob Miller's Trebase system, but were never able to get it to work properly. Eventually the city hopes to link their inventory to GIS, but the base layers for other departments aren't there yet. Information is spotty, but it appears the inventory is kept reasonably up to date. A cost-share grant from WI DNR helped pay for this inventory project, which took place about 5 years ago.
- The other community has a very outdated inventory, probably at least 15 years old, and has considered applying for an urban forestry grant from WI DNR for a new one. The community can't decide whether to go with commercial tree-inventory software, work with city engineering staff to customize one, or hire a consultant who customizes Access-based tree inventories. A complicating factor is that the forestry program in this community is under heavy scrutiny by the city council. Program decisions are sometimes made by elected officials. -Cynthia Casey, Wisconsin Regional Urban Forester
Madison has been working with Natural Path for several years to get Canopy to integrate with their GIS system. A demo area of the city has been completed, though they are unsure if or when they will get the entire city inventoried. Time and money are always a factor. One option is for staff to inventory them as they are visited during the normal routine maintenance cycle.
The intent is to get the trees on the GIS so that they can more easily and effectively plan with other city departments. In this region, Madison is largest community served by Dave Stephenson, WI DNR Regional Urban Forester. The next largest is Janesville, which doesn't yet have a street-tree management program yet alone an inventory. Dozens of smaller communities in this region have computer inventories, with about six that integrate with a GIS system. Most have been funded with the help of a grant through WI DNR The use of these systems varies from community to community, but quite a few use it as a day-to-day management tool. -David Stephenson,Urban & Community Forestry Coordinator , South Central Region - Wisconsin Dept. of Natural Resources
Tish Carr, Maine U&CF coordinator, and Kevin LeClair, Washington State U&CF, may meet some of these challenges as they begin their new jobs as city foresters. Congratulations Tish on your new position as the city forester for Augusta, Maine. We also wish Kevin the best of luck when, on Sept. 30, he assumes duties as the new urban forester for Bellevue, Washington.
A city foresters call to action-true phone messages
"Citizen says that all of the trees located by her house have grown too high, she cannot see the tops of the trees anymore; she feels unsafe since she cannot see how the top of the trees are doing, please cut them down to 5'6"."
"Citizen states branches from the tree in the ROW have grown underground and are now poking up near her house, she is afraid of where they will go next."
"Citizen states that the large tree across the street, in the park, needs to be cut down. The tree has given her husband an enlarged heart."
"Citizen states the shade from the city tree has led to her depression - would like tree removed so the sun would come through her window, also wants to be compensated for her anti-depression prescriptions and doctor's bills. Please hurry, Channel 6 states it will be sunny on Thursday."
"Citizen reports that he cannot leave his house due to shiny green insects living in the city tree that attack him when he leaves his house. The bites disappear when by the time he arrives at the hospital, so he doesn't know what kind they are. Please remove tree and insects. The insects don' t like the rain."
"Citizen reports a hanging limb next to the sidewalk, if a blind woman should walk near it, they could get hurt."
"Citizen says there is a tree on the far southeast side of this location near the street that a bug has eaten, the bark is eroding away, and salt from the street has rusted out the base of the tree."
USDA Forest Service Announces Cost Share Grants [back to top]
U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth recently announced ten recipients of federal grants totaling $997,998 to benefit the nation's urban and community forests. "Urban forests improve our quality of life, shade our homes, provide wildlife habitats, and reduce storm-water runoff," Bosworth said in making the awards. The grants will fund projects that will help the Forest Service understand the effects of urban forests on health, crime and energy use. The Forest Service will work with local organizations on communication, education and problem solving, and to help promote the planting and maintenance of healthy urban forests.
Recipients of the cost-share grants were selected from 92 proposals in a competitive process, based on criteria developed by the National Urban and Community Forestry Advisory Council (NUCFAC). NUCFAC is a 15-member advisory council established in 1990 legislation, made up of representatives from communities, universities, non-profit forestry and conservation citizen organizations, landscape and design consultants, the forest product or nursery industry, professional renewable natural resource organizations, and USDA. The council reviews the proposals and makes recommendations to the Forest Service, which makes the awards. Since NUCFAC's inception, the Forest Service has supported 102 competitive cost-share proposals that promote urban and community forestry nationwide. Proposals are submitted in a variety of categories selected and announced by NUCFAC in the fall of each year.
Recipients of the 2001 grants for urban and community forestry are:
Category 1: National Assessment of Current Urban and Community Forestry Programs to conduct and disseminate a comprehensive assessment of the nation's urban and community forestry programs in order to obtain the current status and the future potential of nation-wide programs for long-range planning, development, and implementation.
National Assessment of Current Urban and Community Forestry Programs submitted by HortScience, Inc. in Pleasanton, Calif.
Category 2: Guidebook for Assisting Communities to Develop a Sustainable Urban and Community Forestry Program to develop and produce a comprehensive (model) guidebook that communities can use to create successful and sustainable urban and community forestry programs.
Sustainable Urban and Community Forestry Program Guidebook submitted by The National Arbor Day Foundation in Lincoln, Neb.
Category 3: Creative and Innovative Projects to increase the public's understanding and knowledge of the value, health and benefits of the urban and community forest.
Our Heritage of Community Trees submitted by the Pennsylvania Urban and Community Forestry Council in University Park, Penn.
Computer Animated Stormwater Runoff Model submitted by the Sanitation District No. 1 of Northern Kentucky in Fort Wright, Ky.
Web Site Enhancement for arborday.org submitted by The National Arbor Day Foundation in Lincoln, Neb.
Urban Forestry in Schools - A Model for Non-Profits and Educators submitted by Treemendous in Seattle, Wash.
Dissemination of an Approach to Integrate Urban Tree Planting in State and Federal Air Quality Improvement Programs submitted by the Davey Resource Group in Naples, N.Y.
Integrating a High-Powered Urban Forest Benefits Model in a User-Friendly, Public Domain Program submitted by the Davey Resource Group in Naples, N.Y.
TreeLink: An "Expanding Canopy" of Urban and Community Forestry Knowledge submitted by TreeUtah in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Conveying the Power of Trees: A National Outreach Effort submitted by the University of Illinois in Urbana, Ill.
CONTACT
HOME