Community Forestry

Community Forester
Jack Rowe

Southwest Alabama Community Forestry Program

Why Trees Are Important To Small Towns

Trees are central to the commonly held ideal of what rural city life should be.  Images of tree lined streets are a part of the American consciousness.  Large cities often strive to preserve their older, small town roots that usually come accompanied by an established tree canopy.  Trees are a prerequisite of our images of historic or small town life as opposed to perceptions of modern large cities where images of tall buildings and concrete dominate our mental landscape.

 

Above: Government Street, Mobile, Alabama with its arching canopy of live oaks.

 

Trees in urban settings contribute a great deal to the ‘livability’ of the city space.

Other benefits include some documented research of crime reduction; shorter hospital stays for patients in facilities with trees visible through the windows; and reduction in the incidence of domestic violence.

Physical (and fiscal) benefits of city trees have been the subject of many researchers and recent research points to some basic benefits provided by trees that no city would like to do without.

• Two mature shade trees located to the east and west sides of a building can save up to 56% on air conditioning and 25% on heating costs. 
• Each mature shade tree in front of a home adds approximately 1% to home value.
• Businesses with landscaping featuring trees attract more customers.  These studies also demostrate that shoppers are willing to pay more for products and services in businesses with trees around them.
• 100 mature trees can:
• capture 538,000 gallons of rainfall per year
• sequester 53 tons of CO2 per year
• capture 430 pounds of ozone and particulate pollutants per year
• Trees require maintenance in city settings to maintain their safety.  This is a job creator as tree maintenance is best performed by certified arborists.
• Trees provide buffers for winds and sounds.

Duties of the Southwest Alabama Community Forester

Work with existing local tree commissions and boards.

• Advise and educate board members.
• Implementation of current community forestry plans.
• Updating and improving current ordinances to meet the needs of specific towns and cities.

Assist in the formation of new tree commissions and boards.  Through this function the Southwest Alabama Community Forestry program will continue to grow.

Develop model tree ordinances.

• Technical assistance in tree planting, maintenance, and management planning.
• Improvement of existing ordinances through revision.

Devise and conduct basic community forestry projects.

• Tree inventory and community forest management planning.
• Tree planting projects.
• Tree maintenance work and education.

Provide diagnostic and technical education for regional home/land owners.

Promote and support the Tree City USA program.

 

Goals of the Community Forester

Education of municipal officers and general public about benefits of a healthy and safe community forest and the establishment of strong community forestry programs in every town and city.

Assist our member towns and cities in establishing and maintaining a community forest and landscape.

Educate of area arborists and tree/landscape professionals in up to date best practices concerning trees, tree species selections, tree maintenance, and tree preservation in development and construction.

Assist area educators and Alabama Cooperative Extension System with Community Forestry programming.

History of the Program

Community/Urban Forestry is a complex idea that is best simply described as the management of trees within a city to improve its environment and the experience of its citizens.  The idea is usually reserved only for larger cities with groups of citizens interested in trees and a desire for beautiful living spaces, or for rapidly developing cities with a direct need to insure that trees and their benefits are not erased from the city environment by over-development. 

Whatever our preconceptions, the size of a city does not change the benefits of having city trees and a Community Forestry program.  Trees provide enormous benefits to developed land, particularly in towns and cities.  Rural towns, not having the resources of larger urban areas usually ignore their trees until they damage someone or something through their growth or death which actually leads to increased costs of maintenance (e.g. broken sidewalks and streets) or damage to citizen’s property (e.g. damaged buildings or vehicles) which leads to increases in municipal insurance costs and potentially to lawsuits.

This lack of education and leadership was noticed by Mr. Norman Burton, Coordinator of the ALA-TOM RC&D Council while serving on the Alabama Urban Forestry Council.  Over time the ALA-TOM RC&D became involved in street tree grants and tree planning for local communities’ parks and beautification projects, securing funds and developing local interest in street trees.  After several years it became evident that a full-time Community Forester/Horticulturist was needed to support the diverse needs of ALA-TOM communities. 

Because of the rural nature of the southwestern Alabama, most communities did not each have the population to support a professional Community Forester.  This lead to Mr. Burton and Mrs. Rita Sims Franklin of Selma Alabama’s city council to devise a shared-services program to benefit the entire ALA-TOM region, paid for by contributions from participating municipalities.

This program immediately became successful, proceeding from 1997 to the present day. Following establishment of the Community Forestry Program 17 regional towns and cities became members of the program and an Urban Forester was hired.  Of the original towns and cities, Demopolis came to value the services of the program enough to hire their own city Horticulturist to increase the attention to their community’s needs.

 

In 2007 the ALA-TOM RC&D Community Forestry Program merged with the Alabama Cooperative Extension System providing additional support to the region by making the ALA-TOM Community Forester a Regional Extension Agent backed by the services and resources of the Extension System.

Membership In the Southwest Alabama Urban Forestry Program

Member towns gain:

• On-call advice of a Community Forester, backed by the Alabama Cooperative Extension System for education, program development and community outreach at a miniscule portion of the cost of hiring a qualified professional.
• Development of goals, plans, and risk management of their community forests.
• Assistance in finding and requesting grant monies for trees, and tree management.
• Horticultural and landscape maintenance advice.
• Tree maintenance education for municipal staff members.

Becoming a member:

Please contact the ALA-TOM RC&D Council Inc. offices at (334) 636-0120 or the Community Forester, Jack Rowe at (251) 589-5572 to find out if your community is eligible for membership.

 

ALA-TOM RC&D Council P.O. Box 355 16 West Front Street S. Thomasville, AL 36784
Phone: 334-636-0120 Fax: 334-636-0122