City Trees is a premier publication focused on urban + community forestry. In each issue, you’ll learn how to best manage the trees in your community and more!
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/723399
20 City Trees Santa Monica Urban Forester Matthew Wells, third from left, gathers with former SMA President George Gonzalez, fourth from left, and the members of the Santa Monica Urban Forest Task Force following the SMA plaque presentation. Urban Forest Master Plan which will include the adoption of a 10% genus and 5% species diversity goal. This diversity goal will be achieved by strate- gically designating each street segment with a replacement species so that any one species will not exceed 5% of the urban forest. Our street and park trees are evaluat- ed through our planned tree mainte- nance program. We prune our trees on one-, two-, three- or five-year cycles dependent on species and location. Additionally, in 2015 we launched a new risk management program where we visually inspect all public trees annually, primarily using a drive-by assessment. What's next for the City of Santa Monica's Urban Forestry Program? MW: We have an exciting year ahead of us with the following goals: • Complete a full update to the 2011 Urban Forest Master Plan. • Launch a Heritage Tree Program based on community input to cele- brate the very best public trees in the City. • Obtain the results of an urban tree canopy (UTC) study currently being performed by the U.S. Forest Service and UC Davis. We will use these results to set a realistic UTC goal for Santa Monica and also better understand how the UTC has changed across the City over the last ten years. • Use a newly developed five-year street tree planting priority model to guide planting operations based on current tree resources, human demographics, and environmental need. Overall, we will continue our work to maximize the ecosystem services deliv- ered to the community by the urban for- est in an economically responsible and risk appropriate manner. Urban Forest Supervisors Wister Dorta, left, and Peter Provenzale (not pictured) led a group of volunteers in a tree planting demonstration at this year's annual Arbor Day event. Twenty-four trees were planted on the slope of one of the City's seaside parks.