Innovative Urban Forestry Programs and Projects

Presenters:

Dean Hay, The Greening of Detroit, Detroit, MI

Edith Makra, Metropolitan Mayors Caucus, Bloomingdale, IL

Dan Staley, DCS Consulting Services, Aurora, CO

Anne Fenkner, Sacramento Tree Foundation, Sacramento, CA

Andrew Hillman, NYS Urban Forestry Council, Trumansburg, NY

Reforestation and Reclamation of Detroit’s Vacant Land

Dean Hay ISA Certified Arborist, Municipal Specialist Director of Green Infrastructure The Greening of Detroit Detroit’s Vacant Land History and Background

2010 Classification of the City of Detroit City of Detroit Established 1806 Area: 143.0 sq. miles Population 2009: 910,848 (ACS) 2012: 780,000 ( 14%) Vacant Land: 40-50 acres

Dean Hay ISA Certified Arborist, Municipal Specialist Director of Green Infrastructure The Greening of Detroit ST. CYRIL

2010

Dean Hay ISA Certified Arborist, Municipal Specialist Director of Green Infrastructure The Greening of Detroit New Growth Forest projects on vacant land

March 24, June 2 and June 13 New Growth Forest

Project 5 of 9

The New Growth Forest project was developed to re-establish urban mixed age hardwood forest stands within the City of Detroit.

Properties were selected in both stable and decentralized neighborhoods and strategically scattered throughout the city.

The Greening of Detroit is currently utilizing these projects to develop forestry-related jobs and curriculum to educate residents on the benefits of urban forests.

Dorais Park Planting March 24, 2012 Dorais Park site Tree Inventory Data

Tree Species/Cultivar Quantity Caliper SW Storage in Gal. (2012) SW Storage in Gal. (2022) CO2 Seq in # (2022) Allegheny Serviceberry 20 .5" cal. 340 6,420 2,920 American Sycamore 15 1.5" B&B 510 9,150 2,310 Bald Cypress 25 .5" cal. 500 17,150 6,500 Bur Oak 9 .5" cal. 360 4,572 1,395 Chokecherry 47 .5" cal. 799 15,087 6,862 Dawn Redwood 55 .5" cal. 1,100 37,730 14,300 Frontier Elm 43 1.5" B&B 4,214 27,563 7,998 Hackberry 84 .5" cal. 1,680 57,624 21,840 Northern Red Oak 45 .5" cal. 720 26,820 7,065 Overcup Oak 5 1.5" B&B 605 2,540 775 Princeton Elm 40 1.5" B&B 3,920 25,640 7,440 Red Maple - Michigan 58 .5" cal. 522 40,426 9,106 River Birch - Clump 70 .5" cal. 1,400 48,020 18,200 Silver Maple 72 .5" cal. 864 63,360 16,632 Swamp White Oak 95 .5" cal. 3,800 48,260 14,725 Swamp White Oak 25 1.5" B&B 3,025 15,300 4,725 Sweetbay Magnolia 20 .5" cal. 420 6,680 2,100 Tulip Tree 29 1.5" B&B 1,711 19,894 7,540 Tulip Tree 2 .5" cal. 40 1,372 520 759 26,530 473,608 ( 1785%) 152,953

*10 year projection provided by USFS iTree software Vacant lot tree nurseries

Pine Street Nursery Corktown Community Development Corp. 400-5 gallon trees planted April 2007 Dendroremediation on vacant industrial lots

Across the City of Detroit there are hundreds of publicly and privately held brownfield properties.

Scattered across the city, most are located in former industrial zones but some are adjacent neighborhoods, near parks or in areas that are commonly used by residents.

Due to the high supply of and low demand for vacant land, most brownfields are low priorities for reuse. Dendoremediation (tree removing contaminants on brownfields) offers a low cost alternative to traditional remove and replace soil methods.

In 2010 and 2012 The Greening of Detroit received USDA GLRI Dendroremediation grants. These grants will allow the Greening of Detroit to: •Identify 8-10 2+ acre Industrial Brownfield sites to be remediated •Establish evaluation methods (soil testing, tree selection) •Design and Install forest treatments

The Greening of Detroit will also: •Establish monitoring procedures to track contaminants in the soil and biomass to prove the field viability of USDA established research methods •Publish a book to document the benefits and provide instruction for brownfield property owners on low cost, effective Dendroremediation methods

Dendroremediation processes Source: UrbanOmnibus.net Dendroremediation on vacant industrial lots

Dendroremediation Benefits: •Low cost to implement (avg. cost per 2 acre property-$5600 plant material, $25k labor, $6k machinery) •Stabilizes soils and non-volatile contaminants •Provides aesthetic of a productive forest •Minimizes maintenance costs

Disadvantages: •Trees impact limited types of contaminants (heavy metals, PAH’s, and some VOC’s) •Tree establishment can be limited by heavy metal contaminants and industrial site soil conditions (organic material, soil structure, soil sterility) •Relatively slow process (8-10 years for moderately contaminated soils)

Soil Contaminants

Safe Residential Level

AD&R American Dismantlers

Arsenic

1.00E+06

9.00E+05 Safe Residential Level 8.00E+05 7.00E+05 American Dismantlers Safe Residential Level

6.00E+05 2700 E. McNichols parts per billion billion per parts

microgram/kilogram 5.00E+05

4.00E+05

3.00E+05 Plot 2 Plot 6 Plot 7 Lead

Safe Residential Level

American Dismantlers

American Dismantlers & Recycling Dendroremediation site (Project 2 of 8) Benzo(a)pyrene American Dismantlers & Recycling Dendroremediation site (Panorama)

Research Trees Landscape Trees Trees planted: Hybrid Aspen DN-34 & NM6 White Spruce Silver Maple Sienna Glen Maple Willow Sx61/Sx64 & Hybrid White Willow Swamp White Oak River Birch Hawthorn Cottonwood Eastern Hackberry Bur Oak Tuliptree Kentucky Coffeetree Crabapple Sycamore 10” Willow SX-61

Hybrid Poplar DN-34 Thank you. Questions?

Dean Hay ISA Certified Arborist, Municipal Specialist Director of Green Infrastructure The Greening of Detroit

Full Circle Urban Forestry Utilizing Wood from Urban Trees

Edith Makra

IL EAB Woodj Utilization Team and Metropolitan Mayors Caucus

Trees are valuable over their lifetime

After decades of giving….

Is this the best stewardship? What is the commodity value of the urban forest?

● Michigan State University pioneered ‘urban timber cruise’ – Found 288 million board ft in Ann Arbor region • 30,300 semi truck loads

● Chicago metro area – tacked onto i-Tree assessment – 40% of all trees have at least 1 merchantable log – 73% of trees are accessible for harvest Commodity Value of Urban Forests

Tools to measure it come from traditional forestry ● Urban & rural are very different forests

potentially 24% of US hardwood demand Market Obstacles

●Scale ●Log Quality & Quantity ●Inconsistency in Supply ●High Cost of Removal ●Low Value ●Systems and Infrastructure not in Place Market Obstacles

Green Building Certification Excludes Urban Lumber ● Forest Stewardship Council – FSC

● LEED Building Certification

– Gives credit only for innovation or local supply

Market Opportunities

●Lumber with a zip code – local, embodied history & culture ●Softens the blow of losing trees ●Unique species

Market Opportunities

●Carbon storage ●Proximity to markets ●Market demand for green building

Turning urban trees into products involves the entire wood use chain

● Arborists – fell trees, harvesting logs ● Sawyers – mill logs into lumber ● Woodworkers – build wood products from lumber ● Intermediaries – specify and sell wood products ● End users – buy finished wood products Turning urban trees into products involves the entire wood use chain

Government/ Non-profit

● Ash Utilization Options Project and Urbanwood retail store – MI ● Cincinnati Urban Timber Project - OH ● US Forest Service Wood Education Resource Center Industry ● Wood from the Hood - MN ● Citilog – NJ ● Pacific Coast Lumber – CA ● Harvesting Urban Timber Hundreds More

Nurture Urban Forests From Seed to Sawdust Join us!

● Vision: All wood from urban trees is put to good use. ● Urban Forest Products Alliance LinkedIn Group

– http://www.linkedin.com/directory/groups/\

Edith Makra Kusnierz Director of Environmental Initiatives Metropolitan Mayors Caucus Chicago, IL 60606 [email protected] www.illinoisurbanwood.org C: 630-327-4193

Green Streets: Partnering urban forests and sustainable transportation design

October 14, 2012

Dan Staley [email protected] http://danstaley.net

The Idea

1. New Opportunities for Urban Foresters and Forestry Orgs 2. Solutions by Partnerships 3. Examples of Success

Old Paradigm

New Street Solutions

A Better Way is Possible

New Perspectives Needed Urban Forestry

Whose Solutions?

Solutions for Many Green Street Components

Not Greenwash

Courtesy of Danilo Maffei Landscape Design LLC Tree-Centered Design?

Solutions for Trees

Traffic and Stormwater Solutions: Who Benefits?

Expanding materials and technologies for the public realm, pedestrian safety, and pedestrian activity

Solutions

• Disconnect between who pays for green infrastructure and who benefits • UFers are well-positioned to use partners and disparate funding sources • Perfect middlemanperson for design, funding, implementation • Reach out using information about new material, technology, sustainability

Conclusion

Urban Forestry is a willing partner and can help expand your business or organization to meet several mutually-reinforcing goals

Handout available on-line at: http://danstaley.net/PCF12-hand.pdf

Fruit for Families

Sacramento Tree Foundation

Growing healthy, livable communities in the Sacramento region by building the best regional urban forest in the nation.

plant | volunteer | learn | join California Bounty

Data Collection

design | training | accuracy | future use

Fruit for Families

Thank you!

For more information, please contact:

Anne Fenkner [email protected] www.sactree.com

SMA/UAA - Off Public Way Setback Tree Planting (The following does not reflect the policies or official positions of the SMA or UAA, just me) Massachusetts General Law Chapter 87

…may plant shade trees, if expedient and with written consent, upon adjoining private property within 20 feet of the public way

October 25, 2006 MOU between SMA & UAA

Enhance the extent and condition of the urban forest Deliver safe, reliable electric power Communicate, cooperate, collaborate October 25, 2006 MOU between SMA & UAA

Standards Certifications Tree Line/ Tree City USA Fully support Right Tree, Right Place

David Bloniarz, PhD USDA FS

An implement for the SMA/UAA Collaboration Toolkit Part of an overall strategy to ruggedize the grid Enhance the extent and condition of the urban forest

Thanks to Dave Bloniarz, USDA FS and Eric Seaborn, MA DCR Innovative Urban Forestry Programs and Projects