Urban Forest Sustainability

Jim RooniTexas Forest ServiceUrban and Community Forestry Program

Mission StatementTexas Forest ServiceUrban and Community Forestry Program

“Our job is to lead Texas communities towards sustainable urban forestry and tree care programs to enhance the social, economic, and environmental benefits that healthy trees and forests provide..”

- U r b a n F o r e s t S u s t a i n a b i l i t y -

Urban Forest Sustainability

• Urban forest sustainability is the measure of how well the network of trees, forests, and related natural resources contribute to human quality of life in cities.

• Focusing program delivery on places where sustainability is low can help solve landscape-scale problems that affect millions of people: urbanization, air quality, water quality, climate change, energy consumption, and natural disasters of all types.

Texas Emerging Communities Project What is a Texas Emerging Community? • The "Forests On The Edge" (FOTE) model was used to identify urban

landscapes that are predicted to experience above average increase in housing density between 2000 and 2030.

• For each incorporated Texas community with a population that exceeds 5,000 (as of the 2010 Census) those 30m "change" pixels were aggregated within the city boundary area, plus that city's natural extra territorial jurisdiction (ETJ), ‐and expressed as a percent of the land area within that ETJ boundary.

• Each of the 335 incorporated communities in Texas was thus given a "FOTE 2030" value, which can range from 0 to 100.

• The FOTE value for each community was then weighed against it’s percent population change between 1980 and 2010 to determine a “Growth Index” value for each community.

Growth Index Calculation"High velocity growth" ‐ (Growth Index = 3) communities have either: FOTE values greater than one Standard Deviation (SD) above state average (value>45.42), OR they have FOTE values greater than one half SD above mean ‐(>35.21) AND 30 year population change greater than one SD above average (>761%).‐

"Rapid growth" communities (Growth Index = 2) have either: FOTE values between one half and one SD above state average (value>35.21 but <45.42) ‐ OR FOTE values between the average and one half SD above average (value>25.00 but <35.21) AND past population change greater than one half SD above average (>492%).

"Modest growth" communities (Growth Index = 1) have either: FOTE values between the mean and one half SD above mean (value>25 but <35.21) ‐ OR have below average FOTE (<25) AND past population change greater than one half SD above average ‐(value>492%).

Definition: Emerging Communities are "high velocity growth"‐ communities with populations between 5K and 30K (2010). (47)

Texas Emerging Communities

Dallas – Fort Worth

Waco - Temple

Austin – San Antonio

Houston

Corpus Christi- Rio Grand Valley

El Paso

Tools for Serving Emerging Communities Objective: Empowering communities to maintain existing tree canopy (natural resources), and even increase tree canopy, with the advent of high-velocity growth.

UCF Technical Assistance (public lands, private lands) Tree City USA Model Public Tree Ordinance tutorial UF Management Plan writing tool Tree preservation ordinance database BMPs for tree preservation * Inventories Environmental Health Concepts (green infrastructure, open space, water resources) Texas Forest Service – Urban Tree Canopy Assessment Product * Urban Watershed Forestry concepts Green Infrastructure concepts

* product currently in development

Tools continued..

Sustainable Planning (sense of place, walkable communities, comprehensive plan)

Project visualization (CanVis software) Network / Connect to city planning group or COG to assist with Comp plan Emergency Management (storm preparedness, wildfire protection) Storm resistant plant list Firewise & native plant list Risk Assessment Training UFST model for community disaster response plan Connect with FRP (TxWrap / Firewise.org/CWPP)

*product currently in development

Suggested Research Needs - SRS

Planting survival & growth studies, by species, by ecoregion in urban landscapes (irrigated vs. unirrigated)

Urban FIA protocols that integrate with Urban Tree Canopy (UTC) layers; improved definition for “urban areas”

Remotely-sensed or modeled debris estimation tools for urban areas in the immediate aftermath of a storm event

Additional energy studies to calculate the value of energy savings and trees

Research or tech transfer unit based in Texas

- Currently, TX relies upon Dudley Hartel (GA), Dave Nowak (NY), Jill Johnson (MN), and Greg McPherson (CA) for relevant UCF research and technology transfer