Urban & Community Forestry
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What is an urban forest?
An urban forest is any tree(s) where people work, live or play. It may include:
- Individual trees along a street or in a parking lot
- Trees within a yard or on a campus.
- Scattered trees within a park or other developed property (read more about trees in the Community)
Why is the urban forest important?
Trees and urban forests matter because they impact the environment we live in by moderating temperature extremes, reducing wind speed, reducing water erosion, filtering pollutants from air, water and soil, providing visual and sound screens, softening the harsh concrete, glass and steel cityscapes and increasing property values. (Read more about Benefits of Trees)
Want to learn more about the urban forest and how to manage it?
Visit these links.
- VA Dept of Forestry's Urban and Community Forestry Program
- Virginia Cooperative Extension
- Virginia Street Tree Assessment Project: An application of i-Tree Streets
- Virginia Tech Urban Forestry Technical Resources
- National Arbor Day Foundation
- Virginia Master Naturalist Urban and Developed Systems
- Davey Natural Resource Stewardship for HOAs
- Community Forestry Planning
- Developing a Street and Park Tree Management Plan
- Sustainable SITES Initiative
- Tree Board University - an online training course for citizens serving on tree advisory bodies for local governments
- Urban Natural Resources Institute - an E-Learning based initiative of the USDA Forest Service Northern Research Station
- eLearn Urban Forestry - An interactive online introduction to urban forest management
