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Into the Woods: How and Why We Manage Our Forests
David Donovan
MN GreenCorps Member
Green Infrastructure – Urban Forestry
Three Rivers Park District
Trees are good…
• Sequester/store carbon
• Reduce GHG
• Remove air pollutants
• Mitigate storm water
• Lessen energy use
…But I don’t have to tell you that.
Sometimes it’s not as obvious…
• Wildlife habitat
• Public health – Physical
– Social/Psychological¹
• Aesthetic worth
• Added property value
• Boost commerce²
• Crime reduction³ ¹ Taylor (2001) ² Wolf (1999) ³ Kuo (2003)
How do we study this?
• Tree inventory
– Forest structure, species composition
– Overall health (disease, invasiveness)
– Significance of ecological services
– Estimated economic (compensatory) value
Assist in guiding management practices
of a forest system
What/how much is there?
i-Tree Eco
• Developed by USDA Forest Service
• Provides a broad picture of entire urban forest
• Analyzes data regarding:
– Inventory fieldwork
– Local meteorology
– Pollution levels
Three Rivers Inventory Project
Active Use Areas
• Areas of recreation (picnic sites, playgrounds, camping)
• Complete inventory
• Each tree plotted, various attributes recorded
Natural Areas
• Off-trail, undeveloped, relatively undisturbed areas
• Sample inventory
• Survey random plots, extrapolate to rest of Parks
Setting Up the Project
• Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
• Estimate 10,241 forested acres in Park District
• Stratified random sample of plots for natural areas
• Selected and inventoried 20 sites for a total of:
– 760 trees inventoried
– 23 species identified
Snapshot of Combined Results
• Across both inventories:
– 7,831 trees inventoried
– 61 species identified
– Average diameter (DBH) 12 inches
– Average height 38 feet
– Potential health concerns 1,348 (17%)
Charly Kearns
MN GreenCorps Urban Forestry
2010-2011
Preliminary Results, 2010-11
• Three Rivers Project Estimates: – 3.8 million trees
– 89% canopy cover
– Pollution removed: 450 mt/y
– Carbon stored: 422,000 mt
– Carbon sequestered: 15,800 mt/y
Total compensatory value of trees within Three Rivers Park District:
$1.44 billion
$3.66 million/y
$8.57 million
$321,000/y
Relative Magnitudes
• Carbon sequestered annually:
– 10,500 automobiles
– 5,300 single family houses
– 15 days of area emissions
• Compared to other places:
Number of Trees
Carbon Storage
(mt)
Carbon Sequestration
(mt/y)
Pollution Removal (mt/y)
Three Rivers Park District
3,886,000 422,000 15,800 326
Baltimore, MD 2,627,000 541,000 14,600 390
Philadelphia, PA 2,113,000 481,000 14,600 523
Managing to Manage
• Mission:
– To promote environmental stewardship through recreation and education in a natural resources-based park system.
• Natural Resource Management
– Restore and protect natural resources
• Forestry
• Water Resources
• Wildlife
Three Rivers Forestry • Sow native tree and shrub seeds
• Plant seedlings and large bare root trees
• Remove exotic species to allow succession
• Maintain trees and shrubs in active use areas
• Monitor and control disease and insects (oak wilt, gypsy)
• Lessen landscape damage due to animals (deer, vole)
• Utilize mulch with leaves from neighboring cities
Current 2011-12 Season Goals
• Natural Area Inventory – More robust sample size
– > Double plots posted
– 100% survey of posted plots
• Active Use Area Inventory – Continue and expand
– Update plantings/removals
2010-11 2011-12
Plots Posted 43 100
Plots Surveyed 20 In Progress
Your Part in Urban Forestry
• Plant native species! – Sustains native wildlife
– Reduces water consumption
– Controls soil erosion
– Improves water quality
– Mitigates flooding and drought
– Slows wildfire spread
– Preserves natural heritage
• Control spread of exotic species