[Vision2020] Article On "Urban Forest"

[Ted Moffett]

All-

The article from the Spokesman Review on Spokane's "Urban Forest" might
require a login account to view, so I will forward part of the article
below:
 Front porch: Urban forest management takes vision, commitment

Jeff Perry can swing around in his desk chair, type an address into his
computer and show you any tree in Spokane . A computer program displays
aerial images of puffy-looking green masses – updated every two years by the
city and Avista Corp. – along with the trees' stats: species, diameter,
height, spread.

Among the oldest and biggest: a horse chestnut at Corbin Art Center, on West
7th Avenue, 80 feet tall with a 52-inch diameter and 60-foot spread. Nearby,
at the Corbin House, a 50-foot-tall European beech laciniata with a 42-inch
diameter and a 60-foot spread.

For the horse chestnut: $13,000. For the beech: $31,700, although really,
Perry says, it would cost $80,000 to $100,000 to move such a tree. That's
how you get a tree's monetary value: by figuring how much it would cost to
replace.

Perry figures the entire public part of the urban forest – park trees and
street trees – would be valued around $300 million.

Of course, judging from the reaction of some Spokane residents to recent
hullabaloos related to tree-pruning and -removing, some trees are priceless.
This spring, a contractor hired by Avista Corp. to clear branches from power
lines raised hackles by sawing big ugly chunks out of the middles of trees
near Grand Boulevard and 37th Avenue . Residents sued the city over last
year's removal of 17 old trees on South Bernard Street as part of a
street-widening project.

But the urban forest is bigger than 17 trees, and more complicated. About
8,000 "public trees" are inventoried in the computer program, with 70,000 to
go. That's on top of an estimated 50,000 to 70,000 trees on private property
(which are only counted if they're significant somehow, like the Corbin
trees). Also to think about: species diversity and soil types and
fungus-carrying beetles, along with power lines near branches and sewer
lines near roots.

For Perry, managing the urban forest requires a long view.

"Really everything I do until I'm dead for this job is going to be for the
benefit of the next generation," he said.

Meanwhile, problems that crop up are often the result of decisions made by
previous generations. Perry sees the product – good and bad – of other
people's efforts long ago. He might never see the product of his own.

The hardest part of his job, Perry said, is convincing the public that a
tree must come down for the benefit of the public, and not only that, the
ethereal public of the future.

But he's eager to talk about those benefits.

Urban forests contain both publicly and privately owned trees in parks,
along streets, near schools, in people's yards, everywhere. They may be
remnant forests – native species preserved during development – or imported
trees planted by residents. Or, like Spokane 's urban forest, a mix of both.

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Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett
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