Community Forestry

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Community Forestry

• Benefiting You and Your Community
• Blakslee Frederick
• Neil Itle
• Tom Herring
• Wade Renninger

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What exactly is Community Forestry?

• When you think of a city, you probably don't
  automatically think of trees. A city is a
  collection of buildings, pavement, and parking
  lots? Yes, but cities also support trees and open
  spaces. In fact,trees are a vital part of any
  urban landscape. The term community forestry
  refers to this relationship. The people who work
  in urban and community forestry, whether they're
  professionals or volunteer groups, do the
  important job of planting and caring for trees in
  our communities.

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A lot of people have come to us and said, we
like trees, but what do they really do for us?

• That is what we hope to explain to you today.

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Community Forestry Why is it a big deal?
To help ensure the sustainability of
parks street trees open spaces
landscaped areas
To increase public input, awareness, and
involvement in land use decisions
providing volunteer opportunities education
sense of community identity building
positive relationships between community residents

• To benefit the municipality by
• higher living standards increasing
  property values
• lower pollution levels enhancing wildlife
  habitat

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Community Forestry Starts with Good Planning

• The process integrates the economic,
  environmental, political and social values of the
  community
• The ultimate goal improved quality for of urban
  life for community residents

Five Important Planning Elements 1. Conduct a
sound inventory of all trees in the community
forest. 2. Adjust the municipal budget to
incorporate expenses in improving the community
forest. 3. Establish a Community Tree Plan with
input from municipal officials and community
residents, to guide the management of the
community trees.
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Important Planning Elements (continued)

• 1. Conduct a sound inventory.
• 2. Adjust the municipal budget.
• 3. Establish a Community Tree plan.
• Form a Municipal Tree Commission, a new
  governmental body within the municipality to
  utilize and enforce the plan.
• Create a municipal tree ordinance, so that all of
  the previous planning aspects can become legal
  and take action.

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Example The Typical Community Forest Problem
The existing community trees are mature and have
started to decline, and the community lacks an
established program to improve the forest in the
future.
Four problems that accumulate over time

• increased wind and soil erosion
• deterioration of community structure
  (buildings, sidewalks, streets, etc.)

• negative public perception of outdoors as
  unsafe and unhealthy
• inability for the community to gain increases
  in property values and new income sources from
  forest by-products

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Benefits of Community Trees

• Environmental
• Social
• Economic

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Effects on the Urban Atmosphere

• Remembered using the word tree
• Temperature and microclimate effects
• Removal of air pollutants
• Energy conservation in buildings
• Emission of VOCs by trees

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Effects on Urban Hydrology

• Well-structured urban trees
• Stabilize soil
• Prevent erosion
• Reduce the effects of storm-water runoff
• How do urban trees do this?
• Natural vegetation allows for the infiltration of
  water
• Tree canopies intercept and evaporate water
  before it hits the ground

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Effects on Urban Noise

• Unwanted noise can be reduced through the proper
  planting of trees and shrubs along roadways and
  between residential and industrial zones

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Effects on Wildlife and Diversity

• Enhances biodiversity of region
• Supports a variety of wildlife
• Urban wildlife indicate the health of the
  environment
• Urban wildlife often provide economic benefits to
  the society

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Social Benefits

• Aesthetic Value
• Greener, softer landscapes
• Sharpens views or angles
• Community Value
• Unifies the community
• Creates a sense of hometown pride

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Economic Benefits

• Increased property values
• Higher tax revenues
• More jobs
• Increased consumer patronage

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Increased Property Values

• Trees can increase property values by up to 30.
• Homes with trees on the property sell for an
  average of 5 more than identical homes without
  trees.

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Increased Tax Revenues

• Effective tree planning
• leads to
• higher property values
• leads to
• higher property tax revenues.

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Increased Consumer Patronage

• Studies show that 76 of the public prefer to
  shop in places beautified with trees.
• Also, studies indicate that people are likely to
  spend around 11 more at stores with trees than
  at identical stores without them.

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Job Creation

• People who design the plan
• People who carry out the plan
• People who maintain the trees

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Summary

• Community forestry offers a variety of benefits
• What can you do? Get involved in your community.

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Creating a Community Tree Plan, Forestry 401
class handout. Instructed by William Elmendorf,
Penn State University, Fall 1999. Bradshaw, A.,
Hunt, B., and Walmsley, T. 1995. Trees in the
Urban LandscapePrinciples and Practice.
University of Liverpool, UK Chapman and
Hall. Elmendorf, William. 1999. Personal
Communication and Forestry 401 class notes. Penn
State University, State College. Heisler, G.M.
et al. 1995. Urban ForestsCooling Our
Communities? Proceedings of the Seventh
National Urban Forestry Conference, Washington,
DC, pp. 31-34. Kuser, John E. 2000. Handbook
of Urban and Community Forestry in the Northeast.
New York Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.
Long, A.J., Nair, P.K.R.
1999. Trees outside forests agro, community,
and urban forestry. Dordrecht Kluwer Academic
Publishers. v. 17/18 (1/3/1) pp. 145-174.
 Lyons, J.R. 1982. Non-consumptive wildlife
associated recreation in the US Identifying the
other constituency, North Am. Wildlife Natural
Resource Conference. v. 47 677-685. McPherson
, E. Gregory, Simpson, James R. 1999. Carbon
dioxide reduction through urban forestry
guidelines for professional and volunteer tree
planters. Albany, Calif., U.S. Dept. of
Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Southwest
Research Station, pp. 237.  Miller, Robert.
1997. Urban Forestry. University of Wisconsin
Prentice Hall. Newtown Square, PA, USDA Forest
Service, Northeastern Area, State and Private
Forestry, Urban and Community Forestry Program
(U.S.). Urban and community forestry
accomplishments in ..., Status report,
Northeastern Area Urban and Community Forestry
Accomplishments Report. v. ill. 28 cm. Annual
Description based on 1999. Nowak, D.J., Noble,
M.H., Sisinni, S.M., Dwyer, J.F. 2001. People
trees assessing the US urban forest
resources. Bethesda, Md. Society of American
Foresters.Mar v. 99 (3) J.  Owens, H. 1998.
Selecting Trees for Environmental Capability and
Aesthetic Appeal. Symp. Role of Trees on the
Urban Environment. Athens Univ. Georgia, pp.
63-65. Pennsylvania Urban and Community
Forestry Fact Sheet Series. 1995. Fact Sheets
2, 5. The Penn State University, College of
Agricultural Sciences. Smith, W.H. 1999.
Urban vegetation and Air Quality. Proc.
National Urban ForestryConference, ESF Pub.
80-003. Syracuse SUNY, pp. 284-305.  Web
Resources Guidelines for Developing and
Evaluating tree ordinances www.isa-arbor.com/tre
e-ord/ordintro.htmProvided by the USDA Forest
Service CFR Human Dimensions of Urban and
Community Forestrywww.cfr.washington.edu/researc
h.envmind/Provided by the College of Forest
Resources, University of Washington Supported by
the National Urban and Community Forestry
Advisory Council     
References