trees: climate-smart infrastructure for cities and towns
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Trees: Climate-Smart Infrastructure for Cities and Towns Kara Reeve, National Wildlife FederationTRANSCRIPT
Trees: Climate-Smart Infrastructure for Cities and Towns
Kara E. ReeveManager, Climate-Smart Communities
National Wildlife Federation
November 7, 2013
NWF: Inspiring Americans to protect wildlife for our children’s future
Dual Approach forResponding to Climate Change
• Mitigation– Addresses causes of global warming
especially through reducing carbon pollution
• Adaptation– Addresses impacts of climate change
on people and wildlife
Dual—not dueling—approaches:Both are essential and complementary
Climate-Smart Communities Program
NWF is helping communities identify andimplement nature-based approaches to prepare for the impacts of climate change
• Encouraging use of nature-based approaches in climate action, sustainability, and land use planning activities;
• Providing guidance for rebuilding and recovery efforts so that when natural disasters strike, nature-based approaches, like restoring coastal wetlands, are prioritized to mitigate future risks; and
• Helping ensure that long-term disaster risk reduction and hazard mitigation activities incorporate best-available climate change science and prioritize nature-based approaches.
www.nwf.org/climate-smart-communities
Nature-Based Approaches to Climate Change Adaptation
Rain garden, Portland, OR
Green roof, Washington DCSouth Los Angeles Wetlands ParkCredit: Justin Cram
Trees: Climate-Smart Infrastructure for Cities and Towns
Credit: M.V. Jantzen
• Reduce stormwater runoff and erosion• Provide wildlife habitats• Sequester carbon • Provide shade in hot summer months
• Help reduce energy use and costs• Help keep aquatic habitats cool
Healthy trees can help reduce carbon pollution and help communities be better prepared for the impacts of climate change
Bear Cup and SalmonCredit: Jitze Couperas
Forestry Climate Preparedness & Response (CPR) tool:
• Funding provided by U.S. Forest Service National Urban and Community Forestry Challenge Cost-Share Grant Program.
• Quantifies and explains key existing land and forest characteristics, such as the amount of forest carbon stored at a particular site, using an embedded Geographic Information System (GIS) tool
• Provides customized management recommendations from a Forest Health Assessment
• Healthy trees can help reduce carbon pollution and help communities be better prepared for the impacts of climate change
http://gismaps.kingcounty.gov/ForestryCPR/default.aspx
NWF worked with King County, WA, to develop a tool for landowners to understand the climate change mitigation and adaptation benefits of healthy trees
Photo: Charlie Archambault
General Guidance – Specifics on the Forests’ Role
Each drop down tab gives information on specific challenge brought on by climate change, then the ways in which forests can help reduce the impacts of the problem.
Geographic Information System Tool
Forestry CPR: Lessons LearnedTechnical • GIS tool took more time and resources than any other aspect of the website, but response has been positive
– more than 200 hours to build the CPR website - learning curve for the GIS team • Relied on local data sources that already existed & customized with local information and resources• King County convened a technical review board that was composed of forestry experts from local
universities, state and federal agencies, and others, to review the site content• Consider designating one person to coordinate the site development, including communicating the needs of
the website to the site developer and the GIS team.
Outreach & Engagement • CPR is only valuable if residents are using it, so it’s a good idea to budget and plan for outreach efforts from
the very beginning of project development. • Consider including a set of landowner profiles that describe the website recommendations they each
followed to improve their land management practices. – Profiles would track the success of residents who have used the tool using before and after pictures– Would describe the techniques and strategies used
• Customized guidance based on a landowner’s specific parcel could also enhance the site– King County did not include this feature due to data challenges.
Since launch the King County Forestry CPR project website has been visit by more than 2,000 unique visitors
(not including any visits to the NWF project website/resources)
Growing Greener: Eco-Structure for Climate Resilience
Credit: Flickr user Yinghai
• Identified gap in resources about climate change and the urban forest
• Created on-line portal on NWF website with project overview, links to CPR, guide, Wildlife Academy training, webinars
Growing Greener Chapters
Urban Forests & Climate ChangeDescribes climate change impacts in urban areas profiles nature-based approaches to build community resilience.
Case Study: Urban and Community Forestry—Climate Preparedness and Response (CPR):
Climate-Smart Actions to Protect and Enhance the Health of Urban ForestsRecommendations for integrating climate change considerations into the planning for and management of urban forests.
Threats to Tree Health—Managing For PestsInformation and resources on common invasive species, pests, and diseases that threaten urban trees across the country.
NWF Programs for Resilient Communities: NWF’s programs and resources that are designed to build healthy, resilient communities, including NWF’s Certified Wildlife Habitat ® program.
Regional & National Resources For Improving Forest Health
Climate-Smart actions to protect and enhance the health of the urban forest:
• Understand which trees and plants in your region are appropriate for a changing climate
• Develop a climate-smart tree species planting list
• Integrate climate change information into pest and invasive species management
• Transform yards and vacant properties into wildlife gardens
• Understand, analyze, and leverage the benefits of urban trees
Understand which trees and plants in your region are appropriate for a changing climate
Sample questions to consider:
• Would the current mix, or the selected tree species, hold up well under the projected climate impacts for the region, such as drier, hotter, wetter, and/or more extreme conditions? If they wouldn’t, what changes in practices (eg., increased use of water, planting larger trees instead of seedlings) would be required in order to establish and maintain them?
• Which species have higher drought tolerances, and could be substituted for species that are not likely to do well with increased drought? Based on site location, which trees and plants could withstand flooding, and even reduce flow rates/absorb more water? Are there trees and plants that can handle both drought and flooding well?
Adapted from: Derby Lewis, A., Hall, K.R. and Hellmann, J.J. 2012. Advancing Adaptation in the City of Chicago: Climate Considerations for Management of
Natural Areas and Green Spaces in the City of Chicago.
Develop a climate-smart tree species planting list
• Engaged the City of Baltimore and now the Baltimore’s 2013 Disaster Preparedness and Planning Project integrates climate information into urban forestry planning.
• Plan states that high priority should be placed on native trees with high adaptive capacity, meaning they are likely to survive future climatic conditions.
Species list adapted from Climate Change Tree Atlas (A Spatial Database of 134 Tree Species of the Eastern USA) http://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/atlas/tree/tree_atlas.html#
Climate-Smart Tree Planting List for Lorain, Ohio (Black River Watershed). Source: National Wildlife Federation.
Integrate climate change information into pest and invasive species management
Emerald Ash Borer. Credit: USFS
Sample Questions to Consider:
• Which invasive species or pest species require the most attention under current conditions, and are these likely to continue to be a problem in the future under continued climate change?
• Is it likely that warmer temperatures will favor new invasive species, such as those that currently pose a problem in more southern regions? Such species could be targets for early detection and early management to prevent or slow establishment.
Adapted from: Derby Lewis, A., Hall, K.R. and Hellmann, J.J. 2012. Advancing Adaptation in The City of Chicago: Climate Considerations for Management of Natural Areas and Green Spaces in the City of Chicago.
Southern Pine Beetle. Credit: USFS
Transform yards and vacant properties into wildlife gardens
• Few people living in these urban and suburban areas consider their lawns and gardens as wildlife conservation areas able to sustain our declining plants and animals – but they can be!
• Landowners can design a Certified Wildlife Habitat® in a way that not only provides habitat for wildlife, but also helps reduce the impacts that climate change has on people and wildlife.
• Networks of Certified Wildlife Habitats® can help restore wildlife in cities and suburbs, sequester carbon, reduce the urban heat island effect, and help manage flooding and drought.
Understand, analyze, and leverage the benefits of urban trees
Examples:• The City of Arcata, CA, was the first municipality
in the country to contract for the sale of forest carbon offsets. The forestry project will be registered and verified according to the rigorous Climate Action Reserve protocols. The revenue from this sale will be used to decrease logging activities and allow tree stands to reach an older age.
• Developed by the USDA Forest Service, iTree is a series of forestry analysis and benefits assessment tools that helps users quantify the ecosystem services and values from trees.
Robust urban tree canopies can reduce carbon pollution, provide habitat and food forwildlife, improve shade and cooling effects, and manage stormwater flooding.
Credit: Flickr user andypiper
2006 National Arbor Day Foundation
1990 Map 2006 Map
USDA Arbor Day
2006 Map
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Changes in USDA Hardiness Zones
Data Sources for GIS ToolForest Characteristics - Carbon Storage & Tree Height Estimate of the amount of biological carbon stored in trees and understory plants on a site, and an average tree height for trees on site.
Water ResourcesEstimate of the amount the property that is covered by water bodies including wetlands, streams and ponds, as well as a 50-foot buffer area of land around these water resources.
Development PressureA measure of how susceptible land may be to conversion from forest to developed real estate.
Wildlife Habitat Network(s)Identifies the network composed of contiguous vegetated corridors that are intended to link wildlife habitat with critical area buffers, priority habitats, trails, open space, and other areas to provide for wildlife movement.
Proximity to Protected AreasMeasures the proximity of a parcel is to other protected areas, including public lands (parks, private lands with conservation easements, other areas where there is protection from permanent conversion by development).