(Ulmus americana) were removed after confirma-
tion of DED, and an increased budget was allocated
towards urban forest management for the fol-
lowing years, focused on early DED detection.
Our challenge is addressing these pests without forest
operations being perceived as overly aggressive by
community members. As communities urbanize, we
tend towards managing trees at the property-level
and individual tree level, rather than looking at
ecological processes at the forest scale. We thusly
shift our definition of forest health towards anthro-
pogenic management objectives and away from
holistic forest processes. The human dimensions
of forest disturbance define these perspectives. In
the next issue, we will examine how these dimen-
sions are influential in management and how
communication can help us prevent public outcry.
Acknowledgements
The forest health inventory methods were tested
while Alexander Martin was a Research Assistant
in the Hamelin Lab, Department of Forest and
Conservation Sciences in the Faculty of Forestry
at the University of British Columbia. A portion
of the funding for this position was contrib-
uted by the Natural Sciences and Engineering
Research Council of Canada (NSERC).
32 CityTREES
Detecting species of interest for the forest health survey
involves sorting through the brush pile and looking for species
that may be present in the region. This method works best for
biota that affect twigs and small branches, as those are the
size that homeowners are likely to remove and transport to
brush piles. Here, bronze birch borer (BBB) (Agrilus anxius) was
found in a small apical stem from a dead birch. Consequently,
an increased budget for the following year was recommended,
as BBB had been found above the actionable threshold in a
predominately birch (Betula spp.) stand of the municipality.
Eastern dwarf mistletoe (Arceuthobium pusillum) detected
on a host tree. It was found in an unmanaged area thanks
to brush pile surveys that indicated where targeted forest
assessments for this parasitic plant should be conducted.
