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- Info
Restoring the urban forest ecosystem
| Author: |
Duryea, Mary L.; Kampf Binelli, Eliana; Korhnak, L.V., eds. |
| Date: |
2000 |
| Periodical: |
Gainesville, FL: Florida Cooperative Extension Service; SW-140. [181 p.] |
| Link: |
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/TOPIC_BOOK_Restoring_the_Urban_Forest_Ecosystem
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| Abstract: |
Urban and community forests are often managed as individual trees instead of whole forest ecosystems. Cities inventory and manage these tree species to meet many important needs such as energy conservation, beauty, and recreation in the city. Yet, there are many opportunities for urban forest restoration to provide additional ecological benefits such as storm-water management, wildlife management, and biodiversity. Restoring the urban forest ecosystem is reestablishing the ecological health of the urban forest ecosystem. The goal of restoration is to return the urban forest to a form which is more ecologically sustainable for the community; the restored urban forest will contribute positively to the community instead of being a drain on its resources. Many of our parks, for example, are composed of trees and grass requiring intensive maintenance inputs such as fertilizing, irrigating, mowing and raking. With restoration these parks could take advantage of natural processes such as nutrient and water cycling, thereby saving money, energy and resources for the community. Connecting these restored parks to other ecosystems such as waterways can also contribute to biodiversity and wildlife management and conservation. The options for restoration sites include: yards, vacant lots, shopping centers, schoolyards, parks, industrial parks, and waterways. The projects can be varied such as: (1) The simple act of eliminating leaf-raking in a park to reestablish the natural forest floor and the natural cycling of nutrients; (2) The establishment of understory plant species in a schoolyard to promote wildlife; (3) The eradication of an invasive plant species which is eliminating much of the understory biodiversity in a park; (4) The re-design of a parking lot to decrease stormwater runoff and provide a small ecological wetland; or (5) The re-creation of a park with species and ecosystems to be just the way it was in the 1800s. The United States hosts an abundance of successful and innovative urban forest restoration projects. The two key ingredients that make these projects so successful are the involvement of people from the community and the formulation of a restoration plan. |
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