City Trees

www.urban-forestry.com 21 spent diplomatically to be useful. By combining different types of political capital we create synergy. Bob Perkins, the first urban forester for the Town of Oakville, a graduate of this Faculty and one of my men- tors, picked up a stone and carried it when he chose to address the threat to Oakville's environmentally sen- sitive valley lands from land development pressures. Bob reached out to John Ghent in the Town's planning department. The town forester and town planner made a great team. By combining the symbolic political capital of his job title with the reputational political capital of how his value was perceived within his organization, Bob con - vinced others to work with him. This created new innova- tive land use policies. These policies reflected technically sound tree protection through creating setbacks from the sensitive top-of-bank along all of the Town's entire major and minor valley systems. This setback is over and above the parkland dedication prescribed in the Ontario Planning Act. Through amendments to the town's official plan, these innovative land use policies would not only stand the test of time since they were introduced in the 1970s but would serve as a model for other communities designing their own natural heritage systems. Let's move on to identify where we interact with people in the politics of trees. Local Arena In municipalities, there is a broad array of players, includ- ing the mayor and chief administrative officer, mem- bers of council, department heads, coworkers, citizens, non-profits, civic associations, and utilities. Even before EAB was confirmed in his county, David Sivyer, urban forester for the City of Milwaukee, obtained $1.1 million in additional funding in the late 2000s to treat all 23,000 city ash trees. How? David picked up a stone and carried it when he chose to address the threat to his City's stormwater management program created by EAB. David showed his colleagues in the engineering department how trees could help them deliver their city services more efficiently. Using an i-Tree Hydro module, David led a project to quantify the opportunity cost to the City's stormwater system should all the ash trees die. When city engineers realized that they did not have a stormwater distribution system with sufficient capacity to handle the additional stormwater runoff under that worse-case scenario, they lined up behind David to rec- ommend ash tree conservation. Provincial Arena In Canada, to the best of my knowledge the only Utilizing cutting-edge technology, we analyze data and turn it into information clients can use to make prudent tree management decisions. Let us co-develop creative solutions and provide support for your next landscape project. • Tree canopy assessments • Tree inventories • Tree risk assessments • Tree preservation services For more information about the unique expertise offered by the SavATree Consulting Group, visit www.savatree.com/consulting. savatree.com Trees | Shrubs | Lawn | Deer | Ticks | Consulting Actionable Tree Intelligence Call today (888) 750-7977 MEMBER Tree Inventory Map Innovative land use policies … serve as a model A B

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