[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: TH: Re: Usenet Newsgroup

 Post-To: Tree-House@Majordomo.Flora.Com (Community Forestry) ----------
 -------
RT Ellsberry wrote:
> 
>  Here in Baltimore, urban forestry is organized something like this:  
> Parks & Rec / City Forestry / Street Trees.  This structure is nicely 
> encapsulated in 'rec.parks.trees' ...
> 

Here in Los Angeles Community Forestry is a lot more complex.  The Department 
of Rec & Park's efforts in community forestry comprise only a small fraction of 
our urban forestry efforts. The rec.parks title would probably miss most of our 
citizens if they were searching the net for a community forestry newsgroup. I 
don't know the usenet world very well, so I donšt have any intelligent suggestions 
for a better title. I will probably miss a lot of players, but herešs a good overview 
of the human side of our urban forest.

The City of LA  uses distinctly different management strategies for park trees 
and street trees (completely different departments with different goals and 
different priorities.) The City Council has a subcommittee (the Community 
Forestry Advisory Council) sequestered over in Public Works, and in another 
building there is an Environmental Affairs Division. Engineering, Street 
Lighting, the Department of Water and Power also all have their fingers in the 
Urban Forest management pie. In addition there is LAUSD (the largest property 
owner in the city), which has it's own tree crews. There are two major non-profit 
youth employment tree planting efforts, a large non-profit citizen forestry 
program, some interesting hybrids and a host of neighborhood level tree 
planting/care programs. The USDA Forest Service has an Urban Forestry 
Program (Greenlink) and does research on the urban forest (separate division 
again). The US Natural Resources Conservation Service has established an 
Urban Team in LA to support greening efforts with expertise. The University of 
California in Riverside, and Los Angeles have both done research on urban 
forests. From a policy standpoint, the Southern California Air Quality 
Management District has a strong voice on urban forest management. California 
Statešs Department of Forestry has a couple of urban foresteršs who serve as 
experts, and administer a large tree planting grant program. The County of Los 
Angeles, which for the most part stays out of the City of LA, also has a large 
grant program that has planted a lot of trees in the city. Caltrans has a huge 
CO2 mitigation grant program to plant trees. The US Urban Resources 
Partnership Program also has a healthy grant program which has funding 
planting trees. (I am mentioning all these governmental funders because they 
have a huge impact on urban forest management based on what they do and donšt 
pay for. i.e. tree planting is heavily subsidized, tree care is not.) And as if that 
wasnšt enough there is a pile of urban forest networking organizations; the 
National Urban Forest Advisory Council, the Alliance for Community Trees, the 
California Urban Forest Advisory Council, and California ReLeaf. Whew... The 
common denominators are urban and trees.

>  Actually, my personal mission here has always been to develop an
>  on-line network of mutual support for independent community tree-
>  planting (stewardship) programs

Thanks!

Jeff Hohensee
TreePeople
City of Angels
Follow-Ups: References: