City Trees is a premier publication focused on urban + community forestry. In each issue, you’ll learn how to best manage the trees in your community and more!
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/171276
NUCFAC: A Report from the National Scene by Walt Warriner, NUCFAC Council Member representing urban forestry, landscape, and design consultants Meeting of the National Urban and Community Forest Advisory Council (NUCFAC) The National Urban and Community Forest Advisory Council (NUCFAC) held its most recent meeting in Denver, Colorado this past June. The Council had a full agenda that included extensive discussion of national issues and opportunities in urban forestry, regional progress in the West, and a tour of the host city. But let me start from the beginning. What is NUCFAC, you ask, and why is it relevant? The 1990 U.S. Farm Bill created NUCFAC to advise the Secretary of Agriculture on matters relating to the protection, planting, and care of trees and forests in our nation's cities and communities. NUCFAC brings together U&CF professionals to strategize the health and future preservation of America's urban forests. Working together, NUCFAC, also referred to as "The Council," brings a full spectrum of views into a consistent vision that is the foundation for a practical national policy on urban forestry. Pretty heady stuff! The Council consists of 15 members representing a full cross-section of the tree care industry. Members are appointed from professional trade organizations like SMA and from among state, county, and munici- 32 pal governments; forest products, nursery, or related industries; urban forestry, landscape, and design consultants; academic institutions; state forestry agencies; professional renewable natural resource or arboriculture society; a national nonprofit forestry or conservation citizen organization; the USDA Extension Service, and U.S. Forest Service. The Council also includes two professionals who are not officers or employees of a government body but who have active experience in urban and community forestry; one lives in a city with a population of less than 50,000, and the other lives in a city with a population over 50,000. With such a wide span of representatives to make up the Council, NUCFAC is relevant as it gives voice to pretty much every aspect of the tree care industry. So again you ask, Why is this important to me? NUCFAC Has a Plan for Urban Forestry! NUCFAC is charged with the development of a ten-year national urban and community forestry action plan. The Action Plan, currently being fleshed out for 20162026, identifies the following categories for the next ten years: an assessment of the current status of urban forest resources; a review of urban and community forestry programs and activities, including City Trees