Forestry

The Center for Watershed Protection, in cooperation with the USDA Forest Service, Northeastern Area State and Private Forestry, has produced a three-part manual series on using trees to protect and restore urban watersheds. The contents of the manual are the result of extensive research compiled over the past year as well as two design workshops held in early 2004 that focused on using trees for stormwater treatment and planting trees in the urban landscape. These workshops were attended by more than 40 local, regional and national experts, including foresters, stormwater engineers, landscape architects, arborists, urban soil scientists, watershed organizations, watershed planners and representatives from parks, transportation and utility companies. The three parts of the manual series are described briefly below.

Urban Watershed Forestry Manual Part 1: Methods for Increasing Forest Cover in a Watershed
Authors: K. Cappiella, T. Wright, T. Schueler Released: 2005

This manual introduces the emerging topic of urban watershed forestry and presents new methods for systematically measuring watershed forest cover and techniques for maintaining or increasing this cover. The audience for this manual includes the local watershed planner or forester.

Urban Watershed Forestry Manual Part 2: Conserving and Planting Trees at Development Sites
Authors: K. Cappiella, T. Schueler, T. Wright Released: 2006

Presents specific ways to enable developers, engineers or landscape architects to incorporate more trees into a development site. The proposed approach focuses on protecting existing trees, planting trees in stormwater treatment practices, and planting trees in other pervious areas of the development site. This manual introduces conceptual designs for stormwater treatment practices that utilize trees as part of the design (referred to as stormwater forestry practices).

Urban Watershed Forestry Manual Part 3: Urban Tree Planting Guide
Authors: K. Cappiella, T. Schueler, J. Tomlinson, T. Wright Released: 2006

Provides detailed guidance on urban tree planting that is applicable at both the development site and the watershed scale. Topics covered include: species selection, site preparation, tree planting and maintenance techniques, and special considerations for urban tree planting.

Field Forms

Urban Reforestation Site Assessment
Authors: Center for Watershed Protection Released: 2004

An appendix of Urban Tree Planting Guide, Part 3 of the Urban Watershed Forestry Guide, The Urban Reforestation Site Assessment (URSA) is used to collect detailed information about planting site conditions. It provides a tool to help organize important data to help determine where and what to plant, and what special methods are needed to prepare the site and reduce conflicts due to existing site constraints. Used to collect data at the most promising reforestation sites in an urban watershed, in order to develop detailed planting plans. All available information about an individual planting area is contained in a single form.

Contiguous Forest Field Form
Authors: Center for Watershed Protection Released: 2004

Use the Contiguous Forest Assessment field sheet to develop good representative characterization of the land under consideration for protection.

Tools

Urban Tree Selection Guide
Authors: K. Cappiella, T. Schueler, J. Tomlinson, T. Wright Released: 2005

As part of Part 3 of the Urban Watershed Forestry manual, the Urban Tree Selection Guide is available in Microsoft Excel to allow searching and filtering.

Future Forest Cover (Leaf Out Analysis)
Authors: K. Cappiella Released: 2006
Instructions Spreadsheet

This method is a GIS analysis that estimates future forest cover (and other land cover types) in a watershed, and can also be used to evaluate the effect of different watershed protection scenarios on future forest cover. The results are useful for predicting future health of streams, setting numeric goals for forest cover, and developing watershed protection recommendations. An addition to Part 1 of the Urban Watershed Forestry Manual.

Urban Reforestation Site Assessment
Authors: Center for Watershed Protection Released: 2004

An appendix of Urban Tree Planting Guide, Part 3 of the Urban Watershed Forestry Guide, The Urban Reforestation Site Assessment (URSA) is used to collect detailed information about planting site conditions. It provides a tool to help organize important data to help determine where and what to plant, and what special methods are needed to prepare the site and reduce conflicts due to existing site constraints. Used to collect data at the most promising reforestation sites in an urban watershed, in order to develop detailed planting plans. All available information about an individual planting area is contained in a single form.

Links

Forest Cover Modeling

Urban Ecosystem Analysis (American Forests)

Analyses quantify tree cover in urban areas and quantify the benefits and services provided by these trees. This analysis has been done for more than 30 cities and metropolitan regions nationwide. The resulting reports often contain data on the average forest cover for different land use types, which may be used as preliminary forest cover coefficients. Check to see if a report is available for your city.

Urban Forest Effects Model - UFORE (USDA Forest Service)

The UFORE Model also quantifies tree cover in urban areas and evaluates planting potential. Resulting data includes tree and grass cover percentages by land use type, which can be used as preliminary land cover coefficients. UFORE studies have been completed for nine cities in the U.S and Canada.

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