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/898636
Overall, our collective challenges to urban natural resource management included: lack of awareness and urban forestry education programs; disconnect between research initiatives and applied practice; lack of policies incorporating urban greening in infrastructure; increased residential and commercial development; absence of strategic approaches at federal and regional levels; and lack of knowl- edge exchange between communi- ties and across professions. One of the main goals of the seminar was to enable and empower partici- pants to ask questions about how we can develop, replicate, and maintain similar programs around the world. Daily, the seminar left me considering the notion of responsibility and what we can do in our respective positions and countries to enhance community resilience and engagement in urban environmental sustainability. In my case, for Canada, one of my roles with Tree Canada, a national NGO dedicated to urban forestry, is to pro - vide direction for the Canadian Urban Forest Network (CUFN) and Strategy (CUFS). Our national steering committee is currently in the process of updating the Strategy for the 2018-2023 term. We have an opportunity to move in a more socially inclu - sive direction by revising the five working groups of the Canadian Urban Forest Strategy to include critical oper- ational elements that will benefit urban forest infrastruc- ture. Specific activities organization-wide can include: • To advocate for alternative modes of educa- tion and creative communications • To better integrate citizen science and crowd-sourcing into our knowledge sharing and knowledge production work • To incorporate more inclusive community engagement strategies for long-term volun- teer commitment • To actively broaden the multi-disciplinary Canadian Urban Forest Network and reach the audiences that are currently under-represented • To determine and explore areas of collab- oration with the US Forest Service to bring i-Tree and STEW-MAP into Canada • To engage with the Canadian Forest Service as their primary external partner to help develop urban forest policies/mandates In Tree Canada's work with municipalities across Canada, communities have expressed that the primary Prior to arriving, we were asked to identify questions and challenges to natural resource management and urban communities facing our countries. During the first few days, each participant offered an introductory presenta- tion on urban forestry and community outreach issues in our home country, allowing us the opportunity to get to know one another more closely, to recognize the common challenges facing practitioners worldwide, and to find common (or dissimilar) entry points into critical dialogue. From a Canadian perspective, the main questions I pro- posed were: (1) Given that some countries have compet- ing (or other) priorities (e.g. poverty, political unrest), what are the motivations for engaging governments and communities in urban forest stewardship and educa- tion? (2) What are the considerations for being inclusive with respect to diverse cultures, ethnicities, religions, and economic backgrounds? Questions that my seminar colleagues offered included: What are the regulations for planting specific species in urban areas? How do you engage people that have limited access to education? How can we move away from science being an elitist activity or concept and make it accessible and fun? What are the similarities and differences among departments at different levels of government and how can we learn from one another to bridge gaps? Lincoln Park, Chicago, IL, Photo credit: Adrina C. Bardekjian 22 CityTREES