Best Management Practices for Integrating Urban Forestry into Environmental Planning (10-DG-11420004-004)

This project is to improve the communication gap between urban foresters and regional planners by creating a series of best management practices (BMP' s) and conducting educational sessions on urban forestry in environmental planning. It can be used as a tool, as well as a resource.

The Society of Municipal Arborists (SMA), in cooperation with the Alabama Association of Regional Councils (AARC), will develop best management practices for integrating urban forestry into environmental planning. The urban forestry profession has been successful in creating sound best management practices which have been widely accepted and utilized by practicing urban forestry professionals, but which have not been adapted for use by allied professionals. Regional planning commissions in Alabama, who are a "service arm" of local governments, have integrated environmental planning into many of their twelve regional planning districts, but do not have the tools to integrate urban forestry into the environmental planning they do with communities, such as community-required comprehensive plans and state-required pre-hazard mitigation plans. This project will adapt urban forestry best practices for use by regional planners, by bringing together professional urban foresters, regional planners, members of state agencies and others to develop best practices as a tool for integrating urban forestry in regional planning at the local level, but which can be replicated nationally.

Attachments

App and Narrative