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?

• 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