Urban Forestry Master Plan

In partnership with Davey Resource Group and Calvin, Giordano and Associates, Inc. (CGA) has developed an Urban Forestry Master Plan, focused on managing the City’s trees into the future. The plan establishes a clear set of priorities and objectives that aid in the management, maintenance, and future planting of trees throughout the City by providing a sustainable and strategic framework.

CGA’s primary contribution to the master plan was the development of an implementable ‘Tool Kit’ that advances the recommendations in the master plan to generate standards that guide the roll-out of these. The ‘Tool Kit’ includes specific case studies of unique conditions in the City that address the intersection of urban forestry considerations with issues such as historic preservation, sea-level rise, and community/neighborhood identities with a focus on satisfying the City’s goal to have strategies in place to increase resiliency and climate adaptation. Additionally, the ‘Tool Kit’ establishes acceptable plant palettes and the species’ most desirable use-situations, as well as constructability standards for balancing adequate root-growth zones with green infrastructure and urban streetscape build-out conditions. Finally, the ‘Tool Kit’ establishes a street-tree prioritization plan to guide future streetscape projects, examines and establishes a metric of measurement to define “success” in future-planned City projects across several different departments, and it establishes parameters to facilitate the cost estimating and planning for these during the budget cycles and scope processes of each project.