America's urban forests: growing concerns

American Forests, Autumn, 1997 by Gary Moll

While coordinating a research project for the U.S. Forest Service in 1993, it became clear to AMERICAN FORESTS that the status of an urban forest should be as a whole, rather than just the health of street trees. To address this need we developed an Urban Ecosystem Analysis technique that not only measured local ecology but provided information to communities in land-use-planning language so that natural resource information could be incorporated into the decisionmaking process. While the technique was successful, the hardware and software were expensive, putting it out of reach financially for many communities and local organizations.

That obstacle was overcome with the development of desktop GIS software by a California company, Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI). AMERICAN FORESTS created an application for that software, CITY green, which we use - and which communities can use themselves - to analyze the value of urban ecosystems. We will continue to release our findings in a series of reports on the state of America's urban forests.

Thousands of city dwellers long for communities that are greener, more beautiful places to live. Striving for increased canopy cover is one way to help make the places where we live healthier and more sustainable, and in the process begin to create cities by nature's design.

Gary Moll is vice president of AMERICAN FORESTS' Urban Forest Center.