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- Info
Urban forest landscapes: Integrating multidisciplinary perspectives
| Author: |
Bradley, Gordon A., ed. |
| Date: |
1995 |
| Periodical: |
Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press |
| Abstract: |
In recent years there has been considerable interest in community tree planting projects. While the underlying motives for such endeavors are commendable, many individuals have expressed concern about the ultimate results. Has sufficient consideration been given to species selection, long-term maintenance costs, the mix and arrangement of plants used in the landscape, and their effects on people and wildlife? These questions have tended to refocus attention so that urban forestry is now seen less as an effort to plant single trees and more as an opportunity to create diverse urban landscapes that will produce an ongoing flow of benefits to people, wildlife, and their respective communities. Conversations with many people who have varied interests in urban forestry showed that an examination of urban forest landscapes by experts representing different disciplinary perspectives should be very useful. This book presents the papers and discussions that resulted from a symposium that took that approach to the subject of urban forestry.
Prior to convening the symposium, a group of experts met at the Center for Urban Horticulture at the University of Washington in Seattle for two days in the spring of 1991 to discuss the idea of special purpose landscapes. The concern was that in our efforts to develop landscapes that address specific goals such as fire safety, energy conservation, aesthetics, and wildlife we may in fact be creating more problems than we are solving or at least we may be achieving the purpose of one landscape at the expense of the purpose of another. After much discussion, it became obvious that we were really talking about the need to focus multidisciplinary attention on the development of urban forest landscapes. This includes not only the need to bring this expertise to bear on the development of urban landscapes but also to recognize tile social and political settings from which urban forestry programs emerge. As the meeting concluded it was agreed that there was sufficient material and interest to proceed with a more formal program that would be made available to a much wider audience, hence the development and convening of a symposium in the spring of 1992 entitled Urban Forest Landscapes: Integrating Multidisciplinary Perspectives. The organization of this book essentially follows the flow of presentations at the symposium. This book has four parts. Part 1 introduces the subject and provides a discussion of how various disciplines may contribute to the development of urban forest landscapes. The social-political context is outlined along with the notion of the urban forest as a gradient extending from -the city center to the urban fringe. Part 1 also offers insights on urban forestry as a contemporary national initiative in the United States. In addition, it provides an extensive history that draws on the experience of European cities over the centuries and shows how many European ideas have influenced urban forestry in the United States. Part 2 examines the setting from which urban forestry programs emerge, starting with those aspects of landscape ecology, plant succession, and dynamics of disturbance that are significant in creating and maintaining urban forests. Discussion then shifts to informational issues that deal with how knowledge is shared and how we evaluate various claims to expertise regarding urban forestry. Institutional issues are treated next. These include legal, political, and economic considerations with an emphasis on grassroots organizations, legal and administrative mechanisms to facilitate program development, and economic aspects of program viability. Part 2 concludes by focusing on the relationship between people and plants and the restorative benefits that urban forests provide. Part 3 of the book looks critically at the various purposes for which urban forest landscapes may be created, such as scenic values, greenbelts and forest remnants, wildlife habitat, and energy conserving, water conserving, and fire-safe landscapes. Discussion includes the purpose of each landscape, what that means with regard to vegetation structure, and how the landscape may change over space and time. Also, factors are examined that increase or decrease one's ability to create effective urban forest landscapes. These include funding, laws and regulations, and ecological issues as well as human preference and understanding. Part 4 integrates the preceding material by focusing attention on the sustainability of urban forest landscapes. This is done from a conceptual perspective as well as by presenting two practical case studies that address urban forest landscape issues from the city center to the urban fringe. Part 4 closes with some thoughts on integrating the multiple objectives of urban forest landscapes.
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