Arboriculture & Urban Forestry 34(6): November 2008 Arboriculture & Urban Forestry 2008. 34(6):341–346. 341 Urban Forest Health Monitoring: Large-Scale Assessments in the United States Anne Buckelew Cumming, Daniel B. Twardus, and David J. Nowak Abstract. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service (USFS), together with state partners, developed methods to monitor urban forest structure, function, and health at a large statewide scale. Pilot studies have been established in five states using protocols based on USFS Forest Inventory and Analysis and Forest Health Monitoring program data collection standards. Variables and data analysis are described. Advantages of a large-scale monitoring study are discussed and examples of results from Wisconsin are presented. Studies in Indiana, Wisconsin, New Jersey, Tennessee, and Colorado, U.S., have shown that urban forest health monitoring data collection and analysis is feasible and can be implemented nationally. Key Words. Forest health monitoring; forest inventory and analysis (FIA); urban forest effects model (UFORE); urban forestry, Wisconsin, U.S. Urban forests provide a multitude of benefits to society such as cleaner air and water, recreational opportunities, aesthetics, and energy savings. Millions of dollars are spent annually to main- tain them, yet relatively little is known about this important resource on a large scale. In an attempt to learn more about this resource and to aid in its management and planning, a pilot study to apply a national forest health monitoring protocol within ur- ban areas was conducted. Based on standard U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service Forest Health Monitoring (FHM) and Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) field sampling protocols, a national plot inventory grid was used to sample urban areas in five U.S. states. Interest in urban forest inventories has increased over the last 20 years. Tallied street trees on index cards have been replaced by data collected on personal data assistants with data posted to web sites to allow access by multiple users. Daily management and annual work planning for municipal tree management is integrated fully with inventory data in many cities. Although cities have inventories of their tree resources, data collected are not standardized among communities; may not include tree data from all land types and ownerships; and are not available for aggregation into a regional or statewide database. Although use- ful for municipal management, these data cannot be used for policy analysis and planning at the state, regional, or national scales where data are needed to describe urban forest structure, function, health, and risks to pests and diseases. Comprehensive management and planning requires accurate baseline information. Data from trees in urban areas can be used to monitor the status, conditions, and trends of the urban forest resource at large scales. This monitoring can meet the need of many programs by allowing for the assessment of: 1) Condition, composition, and extent of the urban forest re- source (to aid in management and planning); 2) Changes and threats to the sustainability of urban forests (species and cover changes, invasive species, pest outbreaks); 3) Ecosystem services and values (air pollution removal, car- bon storage and sequestration, building energy conservation); 4) Basic data (species composition, leaf area, leaf biomass, leaf area index; tree biomass) needed for incorporation of urban vegetation within environmental regulations such as State Implementation Plans of the Clean Air Act; Total Maximum Daily Loads and Stormwater Program for Mu- nicipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems of the Clean Water Act; and programs aimed at reducing greenhouse gases; 5) Biomass and economics of wood use in urban areas (board foot volume, waste wood management); and 6) Long-term change in the urban forest to: a) Understand and manage factors that alter urban forests to help sustain long-term forest health; b) Monitor/evaluate the effectiveness of federal and state ur- ban trees program accomplishments; and c) Identify critical resource needs and help direct national and state program funding. To meet the needs of state and federal natural resource man- agers, a series of pilot studies was initiated to determine the usefulness and feasibility of collecting urban forest data on a large scale (Nowak et al. 2004). The FIA program is tasked by Congress to describe and characterize forests and timberlands nationally, but data are collected exclusively on lands meeting a specific definition of “forest”. Areas that are at least 1 ac in size (0.4 ha), 120 ft wide (36.6 m), 10% stocked with trees, and have undisturbed understories are sampled annually by FIA. Although this sampling accounts for the vast majority trees nationally, there are many areas with trees that are not sampled. Urban areas are one example of an underrepresented resource in the FIA system. The Urban FHM Pilot Program interfaces with the FIA pro- gram to test the use of existing protocols, methods, data flow, and analysis in an urban context. Working in partnership with FIA, FHM, Forest Service Urban and Community Forestry pro- gram, Forest Service Research and Development, and state for- estry agencies, FIA methods were modified and variables added to the existing FIA system to meet the needs of an urban forest assessment. METHODS The FIA grid was used to sample plots in urban areas (one plot for every 6,000 ac [2428.2 ha]) using a panel system. In this panel system, one-fifth of all plots is measured each year such ©2008 International Society of Arboriculture
November 2008
| Title Name |
Pages |
Delete |
Url |
| Empty |
Search Text Block
Page #page_num
#doc_title
Hi $receivername|$receiveremail,
$sendername|$senderemail wrote these comments for you:
$message
$sendername|$senderemail would like for you to view the following digital edition.
Please click on the page below to be directed to the digital edition:
$thumbnail$pagenum
$link$pagenum
Your form submission was a success. You will be contacted by Washington Gas with follow-up information regarding your request.
This process might take longer please wait
