Urban forestry

Urban forestry is the careful care and management of tree populations in urban settings for the purpose of improving the urban environment. Urban forestry advocates the role of trees as a critical part of the urban infrastructure. Urban foresters plant and maintain trees, support appropriate tree and forest preservation, conduct research and promote the many benefits trees provide. Urban forestry is practiced by municipal and commercial arborists, municipal and utility foresters, environmental policymakers, city planners, consultants, educators, researchers and community activists.

Function, the dynamic operation of the forest, includes biochemical cycles, gas exchange, primary productivity, competition, succession, and regeneration. In urban environments, forest functions are frequently related to the human environment. Trees are usually selected, planted, trimmed, and nurtured by people, often with specific intentions, as when a tree is planted in a front yard to shade the driveway and frame the residence. The functional benefits provided by this tree depend on structural attributes, such as species and location, as well as management activities that influence its growth, crown dimensions, and health.

Urban forest functions are thus often oriented toward human outcomes, such as shade, beauty, and privacy. As prominent "things," arranged in distinctive formations, trees command a symbolic and material presence that informs how places and landscapes are imagined. This link that humans have to trees has been theorized by Kellert and Wilson (1993) to be a genetically based emotional need to be close to trees and other greenery. According to their "Biophilia Hypothesis," millions of years of human survival and evolution depended on our ability to cope with the natural world; learning what was safe and dangerous involved the imprinting of strong positive and negative emotional reactions to various natural stimuli. Although 21st century American society is no longer as dependent on nature for day-to-day survival, Kellert and Wilson suggest that closeness to the natural world is still critical for psychological well-being. The complex symbolic and emotional ties that humans have with trees have important implications for the importance of sound urban forest management practices that impact not only quality of life on an ecological level, but on the human and cultural level. People develop emotional attachments to trees that give them special status and value. Removing hazardous trees can be difficult when it means severing the connection between residents and the trees they love. For many, feelings of attachment to trees in cities influences feelings for preservation of trees in forests (McPherson 1998).

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