Category Archives: Urban Forestry and Fire Protection

5 Steps to Craft a Successful Urban Forest Management Plan in 2023

Urban forests play an important role in reducing surface temperatures, improving air quality, conserving energy, and increasing quality of life, amongst many other benefits. A sustainable urban forest must contain healthy, well-maintained trees with high species and age diversity. Creating such a robust urban forest can be complicated for cities and municipalities and is best

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4 Vital Observations to Assess the Health of Blue Gum Eucalyptus Trees

Tasmanian blue gum eucalyptus (eucalyptus globulus) are ubiquitous in California. The species was imported as seeds from Australia during the Gold Rush during the mid-1800s, in the hopes that the fast-growing trees’ wood could be used for construction, furniture making, and railroad ties. They were unsuitable for that use due to the propensity of the

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How Sonic Tomography Helps Arborists Detect Unhealthy Trees to Keep Communities Safe

Drought and pests, as well as tissue and root damage, put many trees at risk for internal rot and decay, which can pose a risk to property and public safety in the event a tree fails. Sonic tomography allows municipalities and developers to efficiently detect and accurately map tree decay in a non-invasive manner, especially

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New Wildfire Crisis Strategy: 3 Targeted Ways the USFS Plans to Protect Communities at Risk

The warming climate, a proliferation of uncleared vegetation, and development near wildlands all combine to fuel devastating fire seasons that begin earlier and earlier each year, especially across the American West. In 2020, 10.1 million acres burned nationwide. To address this crisis, in January of 2022, the US Department of Agriculture Forest Service (Forest Service)

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How Effective Fuel Reduction Can Protect Against Wildfires Every Year

In 2020, more than 9.5 million acres burned because of 26,000 fires throughout the 12 states of the American West. [NF1] Seventeen thousand structures burned—most of which were in California—and 54% of those structures were residences. Since 2000, across the US, about 70,600 wildfires have burned 7 million acres, on average each year. This is more

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Trees are Infrastructure: Planning for Trees to Create Resilient, Equitable Communities

Planning for Trees Improves Climate Resiliency As the climate changes and the earth warms, extreme heat days (temperatures over 95°F) have increased in frequency and wildfires fueled by dry vegetation burn bigger and for longer, negatively impacting air quality both locally and nationally. While unable to completely cancel out the impacts of an extreme heat

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How to Recognize and Manage an Invasive Shot Hole Borer (ISHB) Infestation

Invasive shothole borer (ISHB) is a group of two species of ambrosia beetles that are native to Southwest Asia. Suspected to have first arrived in Southern California in 2003, the beetles were previously misidentified as a less aggressive pest until approximately 2012. Since then, thousands of trees in forests, cities, and residential areas have become

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Protected Tree Species: Limiting Development Impacts from Permit Application through Long-Term Monitoring

Limiting impacts to protected tree species takes place at four distinct points in time throughout project development. A thorough tree inventory informs and ensures a comprehensive Protected Tree Report. During construction, monitoring is essential to avoid impacts to protected species. Finally, long-term monitoring and management facilitate long-term health of protected tree species. Following, Dudek Urban

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Homes on the Brink: Community Wildfire Protection Planning in the Wildland–Urban Interface

Community wildfire protection planning plays a key role in protecting the millions of homes throughout California located on land designated as Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI). The U.S. Forest Service defines the WUI as places where humans and their development come into contact with (within a half mile of) wildland fuel sources. With 32% of housing in

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New Bills Provide $1 Billion in Funding for Wildfire Hazard Reduction Activities

Record-high temperatures and rainfall levels approaching the record low in California have fueled devastating fire seasons that begin earlier and earlier each year. In an effort to prevent increasingly catastrophic wildfires, California Governor Jerry Brown signed several bills in September that prioritize land management activities focused on forest health, fuel management, and fire prevention. Senate

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