Maria D’Agostino is a Community Forester and Consulting Arborist. After many years of learning and sharing urban forest practices in the San Francisco Bay Area, she moved to Alaska when the Municipality of Anchorage hired her to be their Municipal Forester. Later, she started her own consulting practice to help Alaskans understand the value and… More
Mei Ling Hui has been with San Francisco’s Department of Environment since 2007, first as the Urban Forestry and, more recently, the Agriculture Coordinator. Along with her main role in those programs, she provides support to the Climate, Environmental Justice, and Toxics Programs, serving at the intersection of many public stakeholders. She provides staff support to… More
“Right tree, right place” is easier to do in Ohio thanks to the Urban Site Index (USI), a tool for assessing soils and planting sites developed by OHDNR regional urban foresters Alan Siewert and Stephanie Miller. By observing various tree species in various sites, site ratings for different tree species can be developed for various… More
Russell Horsey is the Development Director at the Institute of Chartered Foresters in the United Kingdom. Prior to joining the Institute, Russell was Senior Arboricultural Officer (similar to Head Urban Forester in a U.S. city) for the City of Bristol, England. He is a graduate of the Universities of Brighton, UK, and gained a Masters… More
A natural forest depends on a variety of partnerships between plants, animals, fungi and micro-organisms. An urban forest depends on a similarly complex series of partnerships, albeit mostly between humans. Many biological factors affect the survival of an urban tree. I want to compare two studies involving community forestry programs about young urban tree establishment… More
If you’re involved with an urban development project, chances are trees are also involved in some way, depending on the local municipal codes. Existing trees may need to be protected or require a permit for removal. Many municipal codes require a Certified Arborist to evaluate all or some of the trees on site and write… More
It’s not unusual to find a piece of art or jewelry over 500 years old in a museum’s collection. These precious artifacts are (rightly) treated with great care commensurate with their value. Yet an inch of topsoil, which may have taken more than 500 years to develop, is commonly abused, mismanaged or discarded in the… More
What does “good” soil mean? It depends on your point of view. If you are engineer, you like soil that drains well or compacts easily to bear weight. If you are a farmer, you want soil that is fertile, easy to till, and soaks up water without runoff. If you are a tree… well, what… More
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past 3 years, you know that California is having a major drought. According to the Institute for Public Policy, the three-year period between 2011 and 2014 were the driest on record since record keeping began in 1895, made worse by record high temperatures in 2014. It’s… More
Humans have been managing plants for thousands of years – watering, saving seeds, protecting plants from herbivores. We began learning about horticulture initially through observation. Some of our observations were correct, such as which plants needed lots of sun and which could grow in the shade. Others, such as adding sugar to the soil for… More
Soil. Stormwater. Sustainable Infrastructure.
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