The 2015 SMA conference met in Denver, Colorado,
with "High on Trees" as the theme. Denver City Forester Rob
Davis and the larger urban forestry staff should be "high" on
their accomplishments—Denver was rated one of the "10 Best
Cities for Urban Forests" by American Forests. As we toured
the Denver urban forest, the reasons for this high rating
became apparent.
The urban forestry staff manages approximately 76,000 trees
in parks and along parkways. Each year, 1000 to 1200 new
trees are planted. In Denver City Park (founded 1884) alone,
an arboretum of over 3000 trees of several hundred species
thrives even in the arid climate. Denver has 250 state cham-
pion trees, 35 of which are located in the park system, which
contains more than 350 urban parks and parkways. Among
the 35 parkways, 16 are designated on the National Register
of Historic Places.
Emerald Ash Borer was found in Boulder in 2013, which
sounded the alarm for Denver, where there are 190,000 pri-
vately maintained trees in the public right-of-way (aka street
trees); they are currently being inventoried but it's projected
that there about 25,000 ash trees among them. Among the
76K trees managed by the City, 6K are ash trees. Denver is
proactively treating its ash trees using the SLAM (Slow Ash
Mor tality) guidelines (slameab.info).
Reflections on SMA's 51
st
Annual
International Conference and Trade Show
Denver, Colorado
"Get High on Trees"
Photo by Rich Grant courtesy of Visit Denver
City Forester Rob Davis gave a superb "Inside View" presen-
tation during the conference opening. You can see his slide
show presentation here: http://tinyurl.com/jph4avr.
We thank Rob, Forestry Operations Supervisor Steve Traylor,
and all the urban forestry staff who rolled out the welcome
mat for us in Denver. —Michelle Sutton, Editor
Denver Forestry Operations Supervisor Steve Traylor and Edmond,
Oklahoma Urban Forestry Program Specialist Leigh Martin
32 City Trees
