Rapid Urban Tree Assessment

Natural disasters can result in considerable loss of trees and tree canopy. Professional evaluation of damaged trees prior to disaster clean-up can help retain individual trees...

Retention of this remnant urban forest is an important step in rebuilding the urban forest and environmental services provided.

Based on experiences following Hurricane Katrina and the 2007 Oklahoma ice storm, the Urban & Community Forestry (U&CF) Coordinators of the Southern Region have developed teams of trained arboricultural professionals to provide tree risk assessments. These Urban Forest Strike Teams (UFST) are being developed as part of the Incident Command System and can respond to help communities evaluate damaged trees with the objective of reducing risk and retaining as many trees as possible for the rebuilding phase (recovery) of the disaster.

This presentation will give a brief introduction to the tree assessment work done in the Southern Region since 2006, discuss UFST development during 2007 and 2008, and provide examples of community assistance from the Oklahoma Ice Storm.

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