Livable Communities and Urban Forestry: You Can't Have One Without the Other (04-DG-11052021-106)

This project concentrated on incorporating forestry into urban environments by communicating with local policy makers amoung other influential groups.

The goal of this project was to further the incorporation of forestry in all urban environments. We sought to advance this goal by communicating to local policy makers (local elected officials and key agencies) the role that urban forestry plays in building more livable communities. We delivered this message by 1) including a session on urban forestry at the national New Partners for Smart Growth Conference that LGC is organizing in Miami Beach, January 2005; 2)producing a fact sheet for local policymakers in English and in Spanish addressing the role of urban forestry in community livability; and 3) increasing information about urban forestry on LGC's award-winning web site.

Few local officials fully grasp the value of urban trees in terms of community water supplies, safety and security, public health, walkability and bikeability, air quality, energy use, jobs, economics and aesthetics. This project sought to make this information available to local officials in order to advance the creation of more livable neighborhoods, towns and cities.

Our target audience was and continues to be primarily city and county officials. However, others who visit our web page and attend our national smart growth conferences included and will continue to include developers, architects and landscape architects, planning consultants, students, nonprofit groups, activists, water districts, and others.

We used three methods to achieve our goal:

•Production of a fact sheet for local policymakers addressing the critical role of urban forestry in community livability.

•Inclusion of a session on urban forestry at our January 2005 national "New Partners for Smart Growth Conference: Building Safe, Healthy and Livable Communities" in Miami Beach, Florida.

•Integration of information about the value of urban forestry within our livable communities web site.

Attachments

Click here to download this final grant report as a PDF.