Beatley and Brown study innovative strategies for urban tree preservation
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Through a recent award by the Bob Skiera Memorial Fund Building Bridges Initiative Grant Program, Professor Tim Beatley and JD Brown, Founding Director and Program Director of Biophilic Cities, respectively, aim to study the valuation metrics of mature trees in urban settings.
Established jointly by TREE Fund, the Skiera Family, Wisconsin Arborist Association and the International Society of Arboriculture, The Bob Skiera Memorial Fund provides financial support for research that builds collaboration between urban foresters and urban planners. The Initiative is intended to help arborists and urban foresters communicate the value of trees and urban forests through engagement via collaborative research and other projects with public works officials, risk assessment professionals, civil engineers, wildlife researchers, soil scientists and others.
Despite documented benefits of urban trees and established, mature trees in particular, U.S. urban areas are experiencing continued loss of urban trees and forests as documented by declines in tree canopy coverage. Contributing to this loss is the failure to properly document and communicate the value of urban trees and to integrate this valuation into policy and planning.
In a recent article titled "A New Tree Ethic: What If Trees Really Mattered?", Beatley expresses a growing concern about the increasing rate of deforestation, notably in urban and semi-urban areas like Charlottesville, Virginia. He explains:
It feels at times like I am living in a battleground, with arboreal casualties piling up all around me.
"Many large trees are being cut down all around my city and the cumulative result is showing: a recent study found that the City of Charlottesville has witnessed a sharp reduction in tree canopy in a short period of time: from around 50 percent a decade ago to around 35 percent today. (Source: Charlottesville Tomorrow, April 5, 2022). We are still a leafy city, but the deforestation happening around us is clearly accelerating."
With support from the Skiera Fund, co-PIs Beatley and Brown will develop this research project in collaboration with urban foresters in Biophilic Cities Network partner cities to study the implementation of innovative valuation approaches that are currently available in these cities. Specifically, the research will focus on approaches that elevate the value of preserving trees and forests through financial and incentive-based mechanisms. The project team will produce a web-based resource, a toolkit of approaches, to assist urban foresters and local decision-makers in adopting mechanisms to integrate the value of established urban tree and forest resources into local decision-making.
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The research engages multi-disciplinary theory in fields that include law, economics, ecology, public policy, and urban planning. Portland, Oregon, Washington, D.C, and Austin, Texas will serve as case studies for approaches to incentive-based tree preservation. Cities such as these can serve as precedents for other local municipalities and their role in protecting trees.
Beatley emphasizes the role of policy in this, writing, "Standing up for the trees around us has the potential to significantly change local politics...Cultivating a deeper community tree ethic...[is] an important and necessary step and is the best assurance that politicians and neighbors alike will begin to see how and why these majestic trees “matter” and work hard to protect them."
Learn more through Beatley recently published book, Canopy Cities: Protecting and Expanding Urban Forests (Routledge, December 2023) that provides a comprehensive overview of the essential role of trees and forests in cities and examines the creative approaches cities around the world are taking to protect trees and expand their urban forests.
