Defining Aspects of Urban Forestry
Using the term "rural urban forestry" seems oxymoronic,
yet it revolves around the use of "urban forestry" as a
professional field and area of research. We increasingly
find ourselves applying urban forestry concepts in how
we manage and discuss trees that are growing between
houses. If we examine the different landscapes in this
article's photos, we see a common point amongst them:
trees. In each of these landscapes, the trees are being
managed for human objectives which do not (or only
minimally) include provisioning ecosystem services.
In many definitions of urban forestry, we are managing
trees and landscapes in and around built structures.
Trees are influenced by anthropogenic activities,
including planting practices, and our management
decisions reflect objectives which usually do not
include timber harvesting. However, for many arbor-
ists and urban foresters, identifying management of
trees in the last two images of this article is not likely
to align with their definitions of urban forestry.
There are many proposed definitions of urban forestry
(Konijnendijk et al., 2006), but we will focus on three
likely familiar definitions. The first is from the 2010
version of the Arborists' Certification Study Guide which
defines urban forestry as the "management of natu-
rally occurring and planted trees and associated plants
in urban areas" (Lilly, 2010)
1
. The specific reference to
urban areas excludes its use in rural communities.
Miller's 1996 definition in Urban Forestry: Planning and
Managing Urban Greenspace (2nd Ed.) comes closer to
our rural areas, defining urban forestry as "the plan-
ning, establishment, protection and management of
trees and associated plants, individually, in small groups,
or under forest conditions within cities, their suburbs,
and towns." In this definition, the inclusion of towns, as
well as groups of trees and forested areas, begins >>
A suburban ocean-side area of Vietnam.
1
While a 2022 edition was recently released, I assume that the
majority of arborists are still referencing from their 2010 edition.
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