The Urban Forestry Board meets every third Wednesday of the month at the Parks and Recreation Department on Riverside and Lamar, next door to Zach Scott Theatre. This Wednesday we had a lively meeting. Dr Damon Waitt presented his invasive species report, with contributors/attendees Jessica Wilson (Keep Austin Beautiful), Alice Nance and Margaret Russell (Keep Austin Wild), and Rene' Barerra from PARD. We will vote on the new invasive species resolution at the February meeting. Attending the UFB meetings is a great way to stay in the loop and maintain the energy of the summit, and we hope that we will see you at upcoming meetings.
Some new initiatives emerging from the Board are to more actively disseminate information to neighborhoods and educate the public about Oak Wilt. On Rabb Rd in Zilker, I have witnessed the decline and death of dozens of trees in this area. Homeowners are the first line of defense in preventing and mitigating the spread of this fungus.
We are also gearing up to revive the Tree Tour, a tour of registered trees in Austin. This annual tour was a key part of Margaret Hoffman's (the "tree lady") Think Trees campaign. Margaret claims that the first line of defense in protecting our trees is public involvement. We hope to host a bike tour in the fall to celebrate our "oldest citizens" on this tour and to honor the great Margaret Hoffman as well.
These are a couple of the highlights, and I encourage each of you to share your thoughts and ideas about how we can better preserve and maintain our urban forest!
Shannon
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Black markers' summary
Urban Forestry Summit notes from: Laura Patlove, Dave Sullivan, Jeremy Solomons, Glen Gillman, Wendy Morgan, Mary Ann Neely, Emily King
How do we show
- Marketing campaign
- Schools
- Central information resource
All suggestions and ideas:
· Print on electric bill
o Information about ecosystem services
o Average electric usage for a house of similar size
· Identify needs and desires of residents and then provide them
· Exhibits
· Provide data and experiences
· Personalize trees with plaque stating “name”, value, age, other info
· Marketing campaign
o Include TV, YouTube, print, etc.
o Solicit corporate sponsors
o Put in terms that everyone can understand (kids)
o Specific to urban forestry
o Marketing and newspaper articles about ecosystem services
o Highlight COA activities
o Tell your neighbor
o Provide estimates for $ value that trees add to property (or offset costs of electric usage)
o Create virtual digital images of city and neighborhoods without trees
o Campaign to include how trees improve: Pedestrian environment, Air quality, Health/inspiration, Sustainability, Biodiversity, Value of property, Lower utility bills/urban heat island, Quarter quality/conservation
· Centralized accurate information resource for COA
o Funding from Climate Protection and Tree Mitigation Fund
o COA departments with tree responsibilities housed under Climate Protection
o Participants could include: PARD, WPDR, NPZD, UTCRP, LCRA, AISD
o Web based (low cost)
· Work with school districts to integrate trees into curriculum (science, geography, social, etc.)
o Include design component that helps students critically evaluate trade offs for tree planting decisions and what “right tree in right place” means
o After school hikes and walks for kids
o “Earth camp”
o Hold events in urban forest spaces
· Pilot projects by City/others to highlight benefits
o Educational signs, obvious example of beauty/function of trees
o Tree plantings and landscaping
· Arboretum = tree museum
· Edible park
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Urban Forestry Summit January 9th, 2009
Urban Forestry Summit
January 9th, 2009
Our Group: Christopher Alguire, Rene Barrera, Joyce Basciano, Phil Moncada, Bob Patterson, Nicole Sanford, Tom Suhler, Damon Waitt
(our group's notes are in orange, other colors were other group's suggestions)
Notes:
(our) Urban Forestry Initiative:
Define TREES as natural infrastructure in the City's Land Development Code.
1.) Elect public officials that support initiative
2.) City wide referendum
3.) Education of the Initiative
How can we ____________?
How can we work together to meet the needs of the present without compromising the needs of the future?
What we can do NOT to make these goals happen:
January 9th, 2009
Our Group: Christopher Alguire, Rene Barrera, Joyce Basciano, Phil Moncada, Bob Patterson, Nicole Sanford, Tom Suhler, Damon Waitt
(our group's notes are in orange, other colors were other group's suggestions)
Notes:
(our) Urban Forestry Initiative:
Define TREES as natural infrastructure in the City's Land Development Code.
1.) Elect public officials that support initiative
2.) City wide referendum
3.) Education of the Initiative
How can we ____________?
How can we work together to meet the needs of the present without compromising the needs of the future?
- Elect public officials that support UF as a priority
- Education and getting public officials/people involved
- "GIS" collection
- Connecting data/communication/regulation
- Recognize trees as natural infrastructure and change definition in the LDC - i.e. ecosystem services, carbon offsets, "Quality of Life" values
- Fiscal Conservation
- Open dialogue between: developers, utilities ...How open? Define process that is open + flexible, yet also has parameters to make it fair and predictable
- Interdepartmental communication ...Single point of contact for each
- Elect public officials that will help establish coordination + cooperation among city departments, boards, commissions, citizenry ...Platforms include specific systems, like GIS shared through departments
- Regular meetings with stakeholder groups
- Make structure easier for citizens to participate
- Recycle
- Improve reporting of (GIS) protected trees
- Form changes of building development applications
- Regulate growth rate (i.e. Maximum of Permits/year)
- Educate the public, developers, policy makers
- Emphasize cost-effectiveness of current investment NOW in green infrastructure
- Encourage preservation, conservation, and planting of high quality trees in appropriate locations ...identify range of locations and appropriate tree planting opportunities
- Develop a Plan!
- Plan ahead for open space/parks in future development areas
- Efficiency & coordinated efforts
- Site planning before development & land clearing
- Elect officials who see trees as a priority for the future
- Give more authority to environmental reviewers in the site planning process
- Need central coordinating body with spokes off of it (diagram shows central body with spokes)
- Require that natural parcel features are part of site development
- Engage the community to determine current needs and project future needs
What we can do NOT to make these goals happen:
- No Communication
- No Education
- No Regulation
- No Beautification
- No Preservation
- No Cooperation
- No Mitigation
- No mediation, more litigation
- More polarization, procrastination
- More back room deals
- No Planning
- No more tree planting
- No more Conservation
- No Diversification
Team Documentation update
Team members: Carol Haywood, Lee Lawson, Linnea Lemon, Pat Murphy, Carolyn Palaima, Chad Phelan, and Harry Savio
Question
How can we foster positive communication and effective public policy that will enhance and sustain our urban forest in a way that will benefit all our constituencies?
Priority One
Review existing policies, programs, and regulations for consistency and revise them.
* Inventory all tree policies, programs, and regulations.
* Determine specific conflicts, obstacles, and duplication.
* Propose changes that fix problems and improve effectiveness to achieve vision of a "green" Austin.
Priority Two
Create a vision for the urban forest that has community-wide support.
Priority Three
Quantify benefits of urban forest to communicate value, and increase and coordinate public education.
Additional Responses to Question from Group Exercise:
Reevaluate penalties and incentives concerning tree removals
Coordinate interdepartmental activities
Provide clear, one-stop location and exhibits for permitting process
City of Austin should lead by example
Revive tree tour map
Gather data
Create management plan/maintenance
Exhibits online
Neighborhood tree planting programs
Create Friends of the Urban Forest group
Effective policy = open, fair, predictable
Coordination with City Manager
Coordination with developers
Develop urban forestry department
Communicate "lessons learned" from ineffective policies/problems
Elect ecology-conscious public officials
Question
How can we foster positive communication and effective public policy that will enhance and sustain our urban forest in a way that will benefit all our constituencies?
Priority One
Review existing policies, programs, and regulations for consistency and revise them.
* Inventory all tree policies, programs, and regulations.
* Determine specific conflicts, obstacles, and duplication.
* Propose changes that fix problems and improve effectiveness to achieve vision of a "green" Austin.
Priority Two
Create a vision for the urban forest that has community-wide support.
Priority Three
Quantify benefits of urban forest to communicate value, and increase and coordinate public education.
Additional Responses to Question from Group Exercise:
Reevaluate penalties and incentives concerning tree removals
Coordinate interdepartmental activities
Provide clear, one-stop location and exhibits for permitting process
City of Austin should lead by example
Revive tree tour map
Gather data
Create management plan/maintenance
Exhibits online
Neighborhood tree planting programs
Create Friends of the Urban Forest group
Effective policy = open, fair, predictable
Coordination with City Manager
Coordination with developers
Develop urban forestry department
Communicate "lessons learned" from ineffective policies/problems
Elect ecology-conscious public officials
Monday, January 12, 2009
Please feel free to blog!
Thank you all so much for you contributions to the summit!
We are looking forward to reading your team summaries. Please be sure to send them in by the weekend of Jan 26th so we can include them in our report that we are submitting to city council, the planning commission, and the city manager.
Please also provide any feedback you have regarding the event and any suggestions you have for next years summit.
-Eliza
We are looking forward to reading your team summaries. Please be sure to send them in by the weekend of Jan 26th so we can include them in our report that we are submitting to city council, the planning commission, and the city manager.
Please also provide any feedback you have regarding the event and any suggestions you have for next years summit.
-Eliza
Saturday, January 10, 2009
The Green Team has posted comments!
Welcome to the Austin Urban Forest Summit blog. Please feel free to use this as a forum to share comments. The attendee list with emails will soon be posted to the Austin Urban Forest Website.
Here are the Green Teams comments which will also be posted to the website soon on the Documentation page.
The following is a copy of the information listed on Team Green's (Emily
Koone, Scott Harris, Gardtner Sumner, Leah Haynie, Karl Krumm, Beki
Halpin, and Michael Embesi) assignment sheet:
How can we establish value of the urban forest as a component of the
most livable city?
Priority One
Establish valuation based on ecosystems services
- Demonstrate link between urban forest and total ecosystem
- Print ecosystem values on utility bills
- Charge full appraisal value for removed trees
- Conduct appraisals with and without trees (including
breakdown of energy savings)
- Establish a dollar value of entire urban forest
- Support research that quantifies value of urban forest
- Establish the urban forest as "green" infrastructure with
annual CIP budget and valuation
- Urban forest policy to provide clean air as an eco-service
Three Specifics to Address Priority One
- Standardize criteria for establishing tree valuation based
upon ecosystem service value
- Establish/edit city ordinances and procedures to incorporate
criteria
- Create incentives for preservation (i.e. tax breaks,
development bonuses)
Priority Two
Consolidate, coordinate, and standardize city tree policy while making
sure that different types of urban forest have policies tailored to them
- Charge full appraisal value for removed trees
- Urban forest policy to provide clean air as an eco-service
Priority Three
Central clearinghouse (web site?) of tree information
- Livable city's website quantifies and publicizes ecosystem
service (lower utility bills, etc.)
- Publicize research on human benefits (happiness, mental state
of mind, etc.) of trees/healthy ecosystems
- Ask developers what would be incentive to preserve more trees
- Work with tree advocates, chambers of commerce, developers,
and business association to promote the value of urban forest
Here are the Green Teams comments which will also be posted to the website soon on the Documentation page.
The following is a copy of the information listed on Team Green's (Emily
Koone, Scott Harris, Gardtner Sumner, Leah Haynie, Karl Krumm, Beki
Halpin, and Michael Embesi) assignment sheet:
How can we establish value of the urban forest as a component of the
most livable city?
Priority One
Establish valuation based on ecosystems services
- Demonstrate link between urban forest and total ecosystem
- Print ecosystem values on utility bills
- Charge full appraisal value for removed trees
- Conduct appraisals with and without trees (including
breakdown of energy savings)
- Establish a dollar value of entire urban forest
- Support research that quantifies value of urban forest
- Establish the urban forest as "green" infrastructure with
annual CIP budget and valuation
- Urban forest policy to provide clean air as an eco-service
Three Specifics to Address Priority One
- Standardize criteria for establishing tree valuation based
upon ecosystem service value
- Establish/edit city ordinances and procedures to incorporate
criteria
- Create incentives for preservation (i.e. tax breaks,
development bonuses)
Priority Two
Consolidate, coordinate, and standardize city tree policy while making
sure that different types of urban forest have policies tailored to them
- Charge full appraisal value for removed trees
- Urban forest policy to provide clean air as an eco-service
Priority Three
Central clearinghouse (web site?) of tree information
- Livable city's website quantifies and publicizes ecosystem
service (lower utility bills, etc.)
- Publicize research on human benefits (happiness, mental state
of mind, etc.) of trees/healthy ecosystems
- Ask developers what would be incentive to preserve more trees
- Work with tree advocates, chambers of commerce, developers,
and business association to promote the value of urban forest
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