CITY OF EL CERRITO URBAN FOREST MANAGEMENT PLAN City of El Cerrito Urban Forest Management Plan May 2007 Prepared for: City of El Cerrito Parks and Recreation Department Monica Kortz Jerry Bradshaw Bruce King Prepared by: Vallier Design Associates, Inc. 210 Washington Avenue, Suite G Point Richmond, California 94801 MacNair & Associates P. O. Box 1150 Glen Ellen, California 95442 TABLE OF CONTENTS 7.........Executive Summary 9.........Introduction 11........Benefi ts of a Successful Urban Forest Creating a Sense of Place Balancing Environmental Impacts Economic Vitality 17......Elements of a Successful Urban Forest Intelligent Planning and Management Community and Government Commitment Consistent and Suffi cient Funding Excellent Maintenance 19......Strategies for a Successful Urban Forest Existing Conditions Goals and Strategies 25......Street Tree Inventory Analysis Findings 31......Street Tree Recommendations 33......Appendix 01: Tree Selection & Care Guidelines 37......Appendix 02: Tree List A 59......Appendix 03: Tree List B 67......Appendix 04: Tree List C 73....Appendix 05: Tree List D 99....Appendix 06: Tree List E 101....Appendix 07: Tree List F 109....Appendix 08: Urban Forestry Software 111....Appendix 09: References EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Urban forests grown without foresight or planning can This plan outlines the social, environmental, and create high maintenance requirements and cost burdens. economic benefi ts that a vital urban forest is expected A well-managed urban forest, however, is economically and to provide and establishes these benefi ts as the standard environmentally sustainable and a highly-visible source of of performance for the City of El Cerrito’s urban forest. community pride. In order to meet this standard the City’s urban forestry effort The informational basis of the Urban Forestry Ordinances: must provide: intelligent planning Urban Forest Management Plan · Require a minimum of 50% and management, community are two inventories of trees within canopy cover at maturity in new and government commitment, the City of El Cerrito. In 1991, an and renovated parking lots. consistent funding, and excellent inventory of all street trees in the maintenance public right-of-way was conducted · Require selection of tree species by Tom Pehrson and Associates. from the City’s approved tree Specifi cally, the City of El Cerrito During the winter of 2005, Vallier list and in accordance with the must: Design Associates, Inc and MacNair Urban Forest Management Plan and Associates revisited the trees guidelines. Support the urban forestry effort, and tree locations identifi ed in the both fi nancially and politically, · Require the installation of 1991 inventory; gathering updated at all levels of City government automatic, regular irrigation in all data for each. In 2003, Vallier by providing consistent funding planting areas. Design Associates, Inc. conducted and enacting urban forestry an inventory of all trees, landscape · Require the installation of ordinances. plants and turf grass areas in the structural soil around planting City’s public recreation facilities. areas located in hardscape areas. Provide excellent, consistent maintenance to new and existing The plans, used in tandem, gave us · Require permanent maintenance urban forest trees. a snapshot of existing conditions in by commercial developers and at the urban forest and are a baseline least a 1-year maintenance period While this plan details practical goals from which to form conclusions for street trees by residential and action strategies for developing and develop an action plan for developers. Maintenance includes an extensive, healthy urban forest, a successful urban forest. Both pest control, pruning and the fundamental key to success of the Street Tree Inventory and fertilization. El Cerrito’s urban forest depends the Landscape Management Plan upon a city-wide commitment to · Develop and adopt a Heritage conclude that the primary cause of proper care—appropriate species Tree Ordinance loss of trees, and declining health in selection, adequate irrigation, existing trees, is a lack of consistent, and professional pruning—of the high-quality maintenance. Many of existing urban forest. El Cerrito’s street trees are suffering from chronic drought stress and G severe pruning. 7 INTRODUCTION El Cerrito’s urban forest development process began with the 2003 City of El Cerrito Landscape Management Plan, which identifi ed four steps to take to develop an effective and sustainable urban forest in El Cerrito. 1. Inventory and assess the existing urban forest. 2. Establish goals and policies for the development and maintenance of an socially, environmentally and economically successful urban forest. 3. Enact and enforce ordinances in support of the urban forest goals and policies. 4. Create a capital improvement plan for the implementation of the urban forest goals and policies. The fi rst step was accomplished through the 2003 Landscape Management Plan, and the 2005 Street Tree Inventory, both prepared by Vallier Design Associates, Inc. The Landscape Management Plan is an inventory and assessment of landscape materials, including trees, in all City-owned recreation sites including parks, public stairways, and the Ohlone Greenway. The Street Tree Inventory provides a full inventory of the street trees on City right-of-ways as well as a practical discussion of the The Urban Forest Management Plan: arboricultural conditions present in · describes the benefi ts a successful the street tree forest. urban forest can provide Together the Landscape Management · outlines the elements necessary Plan and the Street Tree Inventory for an urban forest to provide those provide a baseline description of benefi ts. the conditions found in the City’s · provides the goals and strategies existing urban forest. With this necessary for El Cerrito’s urban forest baseline information as a foundation, to reach this standard of performance. the Urban Forest Management Plan accomplishes the second step. This plan discusses the signifi cant benefi ts that can be provided to a community by a thriving urban forest and the conditions necessary for the urban forest to thrive. The Urban Forest Management Plan then provides the goals and actions necessary to reach this standard from El Cerrito’s existing urban forest conditions. Meeting these goals will require a coordinated city-wide effort, including the enforcement of ordinances and the creation of a capital improvement plan in support of the urban forestry effort. G 9 BENEFITS OF A SUCCESSFUL URBAN FOREST An urban forest is the collection of trees growing within navigation through a city is made possible by a mental map an urban area. Nation-wide, city offi cials and residents built upon visual cues—a mental map that is not a grid of are increasingly recognizing that urban forests are a street names and cardinal directions but rather a series vital component of community health. While urban of interconnected experiences generated by memorable forests planted without foresight or planning create high districts and distinct connections within the urban fabric. maintenance requirements and heavy cost burdens, The urban forest is a powerful tool for establishing a a well-managed urban forest will be economically and city’s organizational legibility. The successful urban environmentally sustainable and a highly forest will, by systematic placement visible source of community pride. Well- of distinctive street tree species and The social benefi ts of an maintained urban forests provide social, distinctive species combinations, identify urban forest include: environmental and economic benefi ts. gateways, paths-of-travel, districts, and · Connection to the natural destinations—orienting travelers within Creating a Sense of Place world the city framework and engendering a City dwellers need strong connections sense of ease. to the natural world, a legible urban · Improved city legibility structure, and a sense of investment · A sense of community An urban forest is fundamentally in the public life of the community in different from a ‘natural’ or rural forest order to overcome the geographic in that it requires constant human care disorientation and social isolation that have resulted from for its survival. With intelligent planning, an urban forest the last century’s rapid increases in urban densifi cation can be designed to invite the necessary care. When and sprawl. A extensive, healthy, thoughtfully developed a community plants trees to create identifi able and urban forest is a subtle and powerful force in addressing loved social places—whether at the large scale of a these issues. neighborhood or the intimate scale of a sidewalk café— An extensive and healthy urban Urban forests also improve community health people become invested in forest provides color, texture, and safety: these places. Not only does and seasonal changes that · Trees in high-density neighborhoods lower this commitment further the soften hard urban edges, create fear-levels, contribute to less violent and survival and success of the a rich aesthetic experience, and aggressive behavior, and encourage better urban forest, it also generates a establish connections to natural neighborhood relationships. larger sense of community and cycles. community identity as residents · School children with ADHD show fewer and city offi cials work together A legible city is easily understood symptoms when they have access to natural to maintain and develop the by a stranger and navigable settings.