World Forum on Urban Forests
Our exchange started (unofficially) with the 2nd
World Forum on Urban Forests, which was held in
Washington, DC and gave us great insight into the
current state of urban forestry in the world and in
the U.S. in particular. During the three days of pre-
sentations a lot of different views, challenges, and
solutions were presented. This also gave us an oppor-
tunity to meet many of the people we were going to
spend time with during our official arborist exchange.
Some important realizations for us from the Forum
were how similar our challenges are with regard to
species diversity, conflicting goals with other depart-
ments such as infrastructure and transportation, and
best management practices for the current tree pop-
ulations. At the same time, it was very encouraging
to hear how far we've already come and to hear a
representative from the White House talk about the
importance of urban forestry to make urban areas
more livable, especially in the face of climate change.
After the World Forum on Urban Forests we started
our official arborist exchange/multi-city tour! We
visited New York City, Baltimore, and Washington
DC, with a special focus on DC's urban forest
program. Even though these cities were very dif-
ferent, some themes emerged, as you will see. >>
32 CityTREES
