Fundamental Concepts
Will be released after the lecture
Lecture Video on Zoom
No PowerPoint slides for this chapter ;)
Take home messages:
- A diverse academic/professional background can always serve urban forestry, if the mindset is there
- It is difficult to have large trees in urban environments, so we need to manage the trade offs, and be creative when we can
- Urban soil can be used, reintegrated and the profile can be rebuilt. This leads to less problems than emptying everything out and trucking in topsoil.
- Soil volumes are more than a number, we need to think about the quality of the site and where developing tree roots will be able to go (we can design for root exploration!)
- Society needs to get more creative about urban densification and infill development. Another challenge for the next leaders ;)
- Bylaws are controversial, they are dissuasive but often the issue is we give the rule without equipping folks with the information to get the result we're looking for.
Maybe it should be less about carrots and sticks, and more about giving people options and clear indications of what they can do, and how, to improve urban soils and tree growing conditions. Perhaps clear specifications, design solutions with instructions, or comparing a research/control group to demonstrate how soil preservation/rebuilding approaches are beneficial, could be avenues worth exploring.
See what they did in Arlington Virginia. Looks like there's lot resources HERE (Links to an external site.)
Lastly, if we do go the route of a regulatory framework, it is critical to have clear metrics so we know what to assess when we inspect for compliance and we know what to measure to determine if the result is what we're looking for.