Weird Numbers Part 2: The Natural Heritage Strategy Tree Replacement Equation or ‘Two Tens for a Five Anybody?’; Guelph, Ontario, Canada

Weird Numbers Part 2: The Natural Heritage Strategy Tree Replacement Equation or ‘Two Tens for a Five Anybody?’ « Royal City Rag:
The Draft Natural Heritage Strategy includes a tree replacement policy that contains two components. The first compenent establishes that any trees removed must be replaced and introduces an equation to calculate the replacement value of a given tree. The second, introduces the concept of cash in lieu of trees.
Unfortunately, the first component is nonsensical while the second is meaningless.
The current draft policies require that if a tree is removed trees totaling an equal diameter must replace it. The example below will demonstrate the absurdity of this mathematical reasoning.

Trees beat up in the snow? Here's what a few have to say about assessment, repair

THE BLIZZARD IS OVER. NOW WHAT?


BLIZZARD LESSON - REMOVE A TREE, ADD A TREE


Winter is a great time to tend to your trees

Effort to revisit tree ordinance places allies at odds; San Antonio, TX

Effort to revisit tree ordinance places allies at odds:
City officials are moving forward on an effort to overhaul San Antonio's tree ordinance, but the work-in-progress has sparked a curious disagreement between traditional allies.
The current version tries to address concerns raised in a report done for the city last year by American Forests, a Washington-based environmental consulting firm, which found that the city is gradually destroying its tree canopy in ways that threaten both air and water quality.
The new plan would lower the maximum allowable destruction of trees from 90 percent to roughly 80 percent; double the fees developers pay into a city mitigation fund from $100 to $200 per diameter inch of protected tree destroyed; and impose project-by-project shade requirements of 25 percent for commercial property and 38 percent for residential after developments are complete.
Exemptions for properties larger than half an acre with a home on them — a loophole some developers have abused — would be closed.

City creates non-profit to link community, business and government in efforts to turn brownfields into green; Richmond, VA

City hails progress of local nonprofit urban renewal program – Richmond Confidential -- Richmond, California News, Information, Art and Events.:
Owing in part to its industrial legacy, Richmond is a city with urban environmental challenges.
Which is why Mayor Gayle McLaughlin hails the establishment of a local nonprofit dedicated to cleaning, restoring and reusing urban parcels of land that lay dormant.
The new nonprofit, named Groundwork Richmond, will “operate in areas adversely affected by industrialization and within poor urban communities with significant numbers of brownfields,” McLaughlin said during a ceremony Monday at City Hall celebrating the completion of a feasibility study and strategic plan. The completion of the documents is a key step toward securing funding, she said.
Groundwork Richmond is part of a network of independent community ventures aimed at improving urban environments through local action by linking local people, business, government and other organizations, according to a program summary.

Neighbors Map Out Fire Safety Plan; Santa Monica, CA

Neighbors Map Out Fire Safety Plan - Topanga Messenger Newspaper:
With a magnificent view of the Pacific Ocean from Waveview Drive, it was hard to imagine a wildfire blazing through the verdant green hills and oak tree canopy. Yet, the threat is very real because the entire neighborhood backs up to Topanga State Park and has only one road in and out.
If a fire were to start in the Entrada area, the chances of survival are very slim considering a wind-driven fire travels about two miles per hour, and if you wait until the last minute to leave, it could take more than five hours to evacuate from the Canyon.
With only a steep, one-lane road providing entrance and egresss, a fire commander might think twice before sending his team up there. Once there, it is difficult to read obscure, hand-made address signs, know which houses have pools, or the location of water tanks and underground fire hydrants. And if the phones went out or the radio frequencies became clogged, how would you know what was going on?

City reviews remove-one-plant two ordinance provision after residents balk at compliance; Pacific Grove, CA

P.G. council to review tree rules - MontereyHerald.com ::
The Pacific Grove City Council will consider taking another look at the city's 'cut-one-plant-two' tree ordinance when it meets Wednesday.
Adopted in 2007, the ordinance requires residents who get a city permit to remove a tree from their property to plant two replacements of 'comparable species.' Failure to comply is a misdemeanor.
This has been challenged as unreasonable by residents on grounds that replacing towering Monterey pines with other tall canopy trees is inappropriate in the city's current stage of development.
'A large portion of the Monterey pines in the community are reaching the ends of their expected life span,' said Celia Perez Martinez, reporting on the tree issue to the City Council.

Closing America's Climate Gap Between Rich and Poor; USA

Closing America's Climate Gap Between Rich and Poor SolveClimate.com:
The gap between rich and poor as a result of mitigating climate change could become overwhelming if policymakers aren’t careful to evaluate the steps needed to ensure both effectiveness and social justice, a new report from the University of Southern California warns.
The analysis by USC’s Program for Environmental and Regional Equality (PERE) essentially tries to identify the impact that climate change — and its remedies — will have on people at the lower end of the socioeconomic scale.
Think of it as seeing trees in an attempt to define a forest.
The Climate Gap report focuses on human rights, public health and social justice from a climate change and climate change amelioration perspective, defining those areas most likely to impact the poor, beginning with extreme heat and ending with biofuel production.
PERE Director Manuel Pastor, a professor in USC's Geography and American Studies and Ethnicity Department, defines it as a vital domestic component of climate legislation.

Tree protection law gives no protection to Southern Live Oaks slated for removal to accomodate parking lot; Miami, FL

Solid as an Oak Tree, Dead as a Door Nail:
Written by Terence Cantarella
They’re in the Design District, they’re old and majestic, and they’re about to be destroyed

Miami art collectors Carlos and Rosa de la Cruz are well along in the construction of their expansive new Design District museum that will showcase their world-renowned collection of contemporary art. It is scheduled to open in time for Art Basel Miami Beach in December. And although their art may be new, across the street from their building, where they’re planning a parking lot, they are dealing with something much, much older: oak trees.
Two 80-foot-tall Southern Live Oaks, estimated to be nearly 100 years old, rise from the soil like living monuments at the rear of the vacant lot at 28 NE 41st St., their wide evergreen canopies casting precious shadows over this corner of a sun-blasted city. Miami, in fact, is ranked among the worst in the nation for tree canopy. “Born” in the early part of the last century, the twin oaks have matured with the neighborhood as it went from agricultural seclusion to mid-century ritz to drug-ravaged slum and finally to its present incarnation as the Design District, one of Miami’s most vibrant commercial areas.
Those two stately oaks, however, may soon fall to the chainsaw.

Tree mitigation fund allows for UTC initiative despite lean budget; Denton, TX

City plans to maintain tax rate Denton Record Chronicle News for Denton County, Texas Local News:
City plans to maintain tax rate
Proposal includes less library funds, no gifts to Kiwanis
12:21 AM CDT on Tuesday, September 1, 2009
By Lowell Brown / Staff Writer
Denton residents get their chance to weigh in on the city’s proposed 2009-10 budget during a public hearing tonight.
The budget includes no tax rate increase, and the base rates for city electric, water, wastewater and trash service would not change. But residents would see some higher costs, including increased athletic fees and facility rental charges at recreation centers.
A City Council vote is set for Sept. 22.
New expenditures include $100,000 from the tree mitigation fund on a tree canopy survey.

Bowie UTC is 46% - study used to pursue utility for costs of ecosystem service lost to vegetation management for reliability; Bowie, MD

Tree canopy gets green thumbs up
City planning additional plantings, may offer residents vouchers
by Rachael DeNale | Staff Writer

A recent study has found the City of Bowie has better tree coverage than officials had estimated.
In the meantime, the city has begun a forest management plan to help make the tree canopy even larger.
Roughly 46 percent of the land in the City of Bowie is covered by urban tree canopy, according to a report completed in May by the University of Vermont and commissioned by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources in conjunction with the City of Bowie.
The study, done in 2008, was carried out by the Spatial Analysis Laboratory of the University of Vermont's Rubenstein School of the Environment and Natural Resources in consultation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Forest Service Northern Research Station.
BGE utility clearing work, which is ongoing in Bowie and will remove about 15,000 trees to improve the city's electrical reliability, is expected to reduce the canopy by about 1 percent. The removal is concentrated in residential areas, where the canopy will be reduced by 20 percent. The study was completed before the work began.

Supreme Court overturns lower court, gives New Jersey towns right to make residents and developers pay into fund when removing private property trees

Want to cut down your tree? - South Bergenite:
(by Michael Lamendola - May 27, 2009)
In the future, it could cost big bucks
Towns statewide now have free reign to charge residents and developers who take down trees on private property and do not replace them so new trees can be planted elsewhere within town borders on public land, preserving town canopies.
The decision came by way of a Supreme Court ruling last week, stemming from a lawsuit brought forth by the New Jersey Shore Builder's Association, which challenged an ordinance passed in 2003 by Jackson Township that enabled the town to create an escrow fund, charging between $200 and $800 per tree that was brought down. The fund was established to help the township maintain its tree stock, replacing those that went down with others in town parks or other township-owned properties. In 2004, the New Jersey Shore Builder's Association filed suit to deem the ordinance invalid and was successful in gaining a ruling deeming the ordinance invalid by a trial court in 2005. The association contested that the ordinance applied a false tax and was just implemented to raise extra revenue for the township. Soon after, an appellate court affirmed the trial court's decision. In last week's overturning of the lower courts' decisions however, the Supreme Court judges said the ordinance would "serve broad environmental goals."

School board agrees to double tree count in response to outcry following tree removal for improvements; Oakville, Ontario, Canada; 3/26/09

School Board plans to replace trees at MontclairOakville Today - Oakville,Ontario,Canada
Concerns from residents about the removal of trees to make way for the Montclair Public School expansion are being subdued by a plan to double the number of plants on the property.
An expansion is planned and slated to begin shortly on the White Oaks area-school to create five new classrooms in response to the closure of nearby Lorne Skuce Public School. The concern began when residents noticed several mature trees painted with a bright orange X on their bases.
Information from the Town of Oakville does indicate that nine mature trees on the property will be removed as part of the expansion. However, the Halton District School Board has agreed, as part of the Site Planning process, to plant 22 new trees on the property.

Ice storm cleanup brings free mulch to residents; Fayetteville, AR; 3/18/09

Ice storm cleanup: Round 2 : City begins second pass Northwest Arkansas Times - Fayetteville,AR,USA
To put it in perspective, what has been chipped so far would cover 700 to 800 acres up to 4 inches deep, Marr said.
He said Jordan does not want the debris to be burned, so the resulting chips will be given away to residents, landscaping companies and "anybody that wants to take it."

Experts estimate loss of 6% of UTC in next 10 years due to ash borer; Toronro, Ontario, Canada; 3/10/09

ENVIRONMENT: Beetles will likely wipe out ash trees across city ...insideTORONTO.com - Toronto,Ontario,Canada
Toronto's emerald ash borer infestation can't be held back and will kill nearly every ash tree in the city over the next decade, Toronto's Urban Forestry director Richard Ubbens says.
"These things can travel 25 kilometres, no problem," he added. "When you see the outward effects, the tree is dying already."
The beetles pose no danger to humans but an estimated six per cent of Toronto's tree canopy is ash, a hardwood that plays an important role in the regeneration of forests.

City tree code rewrite, more than a year in the making, still leaves issues unadressed; Denton, TX; 2/28/09

City readies tree code for vote Denton Record Chronicle - Denton,TX,USA
Some said the plan leaned too heavily toward tree replacement, rather than preservation, and complained it would allow clear-cutting in some cases. Others said it still lacked enough incentives for developers to save trees.
Like the current code, the proposal would require a permit for many tree removals. The applicant would submit an inventory of trees on the site and a plan for mitigating their removal, either by planting new trees on- or off-site or paying into a city-managed tree fund — options already offered to developers.

City, NGO partner to offer trees to replenish UTC lost in storm; Buffalo, NY;

Lest We Forget the City of Trees... City Buffalo Rising By Justin Booth
In an effort to continue ongoing reforestation efforts, Re-Tree WNY is partnering with the City of Buffalo to again provide free trees and supplies to plant within the public right-of-way (between sidewalk and street curb) and non-Olmsted parks in neighborhoods this Spring on May 2nd & 3rd. If you are interested in doing a neighborhood tree planting this Spring in the City of Buffalo, Re-Tree WNY is asking all interested groups to follow the steps outlined below in order to secure trees for the planting:

Trees slow to recover from ice storm damage; AK; 2/2/09

Trees slow to recover from ice storm damage Arkansas Democrat Gazette - AR,USA
The sounds of falling tree limbs and splitting trunks cracked through the air last week, echoing off of buildings and thick layers of ice and piercing the quiet of storm-worn Northwest Arkansas.
After two days of belowfreezing temperatures and ice accumulation, even large, mature trees succumbed to the weight, changing form through a series of snaps and cracks that promise to alter Northwest Arkansas' landscape for years to come.