14 City Trees
and a weak urban forest could be repaired with strategic action
and implementation.
A result of the planning process was a "roadmap" for successful
implementation focused on partnership and community out-
reach and engagement. A vision with specific goals and actions
was created to set the Plan into gear, with partnership as the
overarching theme. To achieve this vision, three goals must be
considered and worked toward:
• Goal #1 is a shift in thinking to acknowledge trees as
critical community infrastructure;
• Goal #2 is reversing the trend of canopy loss; and
• Goal #3 is assuming full stewardship for the tree
infrastructure.
These goals were developed and utilized
to inform nine specific actions (which you
can see in the
Plan) that the Cleveland
Urban Forest Coalition members could
use as their roadmap in tracking prog-
ress. Thanks to the partnerships fos-
tered by the Coalition, the Plan has an
increased capacity for implementation.
The Plan has been adopted by the
City Planning Commission, and the Ohio
Chapter of ISA awarded the City of
Cleveland an Award of Accomplishment
in completing the Plan. It has thus
far been distributed by the Cleveland
Mayor's Office of Sustainability; however,
a future action step is a targeted outreach and education cam-
paign marketing the Plan to residents. The Cleveland Mayor's
Office of Sustainability continues to facilitate and support Plan
implementation while focusing on equitable access to tree
canopy (see Appendix B in the
Plan for details on planting for
neighborhood equity).
Even with deeper and focused partnership around the Plan,
there is still a need for culture change. Increasing the desire
to care for trees in the urban forest starts with valuing trees
as infrastructure equal to all others. As the only infrastructure
that appreciates over time, trees are a great investment. The
Holden Arboretum is working with the Coalition to reach private
residential land owners. The rationale behind this is twofold:
1) the City has limited capacity to care for existing trees in the
The value of the tree asset in Cleveland as determined by consultant Davey Resource Group.
How sustainable is Cleveland's urban forest without intervention?
