U.S. Forest Service and Partners
Promoting Environmental
Justice in Urban Forest Plans
Authors: Amber Grant, Lara A. Roman, Andrew A. Millward, Sara Edge, Cheryl Teelucksingh
To effectively manage the urban forest, cities world-
wide have produced Urban Forest Management
Plans (UFMPs), which articulate goals and include
a roadmap for implementation and tracking prog-
ress. Priorities in UFMPs vary and reflect local
stakeholders' socio-cultural, economic, and ecolog-
ical values toward trees, yet many plans focus on
enhancing benefits and resilience through various
operational improvements, such as shortening main-
tenance cycles and enhancing species selection
(Miller
et al., 2015). In most cities in the United States
(US), much of the urban forest grows on private
lands, and therefore many recent UFMPs from US
cities consider strategies for facilitating community
outreach and public awareness about tree benefits.
Yet urban tree benefits and burdens are often
inequitably distributed across society and space,
impacting public perceptions. In US cities, commu-
nities of color and low-income neighborhoods tend
to have fewer trees and less ability to participate in
urban tree planting or decision-making processes,
while white and more affluent communities tend
to have more trees and greater ability to partic-
ipate (Nesbitt
et al., 2019; Grant et al., 2023).
Environmental justice theorists have highlighted
how the lack of environmental amenities and
inability to participate is linked to systemic inequal-
ities, such as structural racism and
redlining
(Schell et al., 2020). Redlining was a discrimina-
tory practice that used color-coded maps to grade
residential areas. Racial and ethnic minorities
were relegated to undesirable "red" areas that
lacked amenities and services and were vulner-
able to environmental risks (Nelson
et al., 2023).
Inclusive, participatory urban forest management
practices are instrumental in strengthening urban
forest decision-making and community-led steward-
ship of urban trees. The concept of environmental
justice helps advance inclusive urban forestry by
providing a framework for evaluating urban tree
access among residents and the processes through
which urban forest goals are pursued and imple-
mented. Further, UFMPs provide an opportunity
for municipalities to address inequities as formal
documents governing urban green spaces.
This article is based on our research that examined
107 UFMPs published by US municipalities between
2002 and 2020 to understand the baseline of environ-
mental justice practice and its manifestation in urban
forest management (Grant
et al., 2022). Specifically,
we assessed whether and how environmental justice
goals were defined, prioritized, or neglected. Here,
we highlight our key findings and present strategies
for activating environmental justice concepts within
UFMPs and subsequent management practices.
26 CityTREES
