I am excited to announce that American Forests is launching a new urban forest program called Community ReLeaf. American Forests Community ReLeaf will directly work with urban communities to first assess and then restore their forests. This work will help develop new information and research about the relevance and importance of urban forests locally and [...]
Last week, I participated in a workshop titled “Urban Forestry: Toward an Ecosystem Services Research Agenda” at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C. The workshop brought together more than 100 participants, and many more tuned-in via webinar. What a great turn out! With interesting presentations, discussions and networking opportunities, I was excited to [...]
We are excited today to announce the 10 best U.S. cities for urban forests. In alphabetical order, those cities are Austin, Charlotte, Denver, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, New York, Portland, Sacramento, Seattle and Washington, D.C. American Forests took on this project to help people (and city leaders) better understand the critical value of urban forests in their [...]
This last weekend, I went on a wonderful hike around Great Falls Park. As we started the hike, I was quickly reminded of the Winter Tree ID class that I took several years ago, where we went on a field trip to that exact same location at this time of year to identify the trees. [...]
Last week, I attended the 2012 Partners in Community Forestry National Conference in Sacramento, Calif. This conference is all about making connections — including connecting with the community forestry network and sharing information about what is happening with community forestry around the country. With more than 500 attendees — ranging from urban foresters, arborists and [...]
I have very fond memories of raking leaves as a child. Growing up in the suburbs, we were lucky to have a big backyard. But, in the fall, in the midst of planning our Halloween costumes and carving our pumpkins, my sisters and I would always get tasked with raking the leaves. Yet, what I [...]
Urban forests across the country are facing very serious threats due to several types of tree-killing pests. At a meeting I attended last week with the Sustainable Urban Forests Coalition, Faith Campbell, senior policy representative at the Nature Conservancy, discussed these threats and the urgent need for our country to step up our game on [...]
Urban forests are vital to help maintain our emotional, mental and physical well-being. The evening before I had wrist surgery a few weeks ago, I went for a jog. In a time when I was feeling anxious and just needed some time to think about the road of recovery ahead of me, I found myself [...]
In the last few weeks, many folks, especially on the East Coast, have witnessed the realities of urban forests — for better and for worse. With temperatures across the country exceeding heat records, urban forests have played a critical role in providing a shade refuge for pedestrians, cyclists and anyone stuck out in the heat. [...]
Earlier this month, I attended a workshop in Davis, California, called “Urban Forests & Carbon Markets” that American Forests participated in and co-sponsored through a grant with the U.S. Forest Service’s Urban & Community Forestry Program. As California takes the lead to develop a cap-and-trade model to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions statewide, American Forests [...]
