Seattle Urban Forest Assessment: Sustainability Matrix

"Cascadia Consulting Group, together with associates from the University of Washington’s College of Forest Resources, was contracted by the City of Seattle in May 2000 to develop an assessment of Seattle’s urban forest resource. This assessment is the first of four phases of a strategic plan being developed for Seattle’s urban forest.

The urban forest assessment involved developing a matrix of sustainability parameters based on James R. Clark’s urban forest sustainability model. Clark’s model contains three broad categories: Vegetation Resource, Community Framework and Resource Management. Each category is further divided into sub-elements containing performance criteria and benchmarks. Clarks model was the starting point and as the assessment proceeded the model was fine-tuned to enhance its applicability to large municipalities, such as Seattle."