Southern Urban and Interface Forests - What's New

Proctor Creek snakes through downtown Atlanta and eventually works its way to the Chattahoochee River. Along the way it passes through both middle and lower income neighborhoods, including some of the most economically depressed areas of the city with high rates of poverty and crime. The waterway is plagued with illegal dumping, pollution, erosion, and high bacteria levels from regular stormwater flooding and sewage overflows. In 2013, Proctor Creek was named one of eleven Urban Waters Federal Partnership Projects, a project that aims to tackle the country’s most polluted city waters and reconnect communities with their waterways. The partnership works to improve coordination and focus among federal agencies on problems in the watershed, as well as promote community-led efforts at economic, social, and ecological revitalization. As a part of the partnership, SRS-4952 is conducting three interconnected studies that will provide valuable information on the links between urban greenspace, ecosystem services, environmental justice, and human health. This issue of Leaves of Change focuses on these three studies and Kids in the Woods outreach activities.

In this issue of our quarterly bulletin, titled Leaves of Change, you will learn about a collaborative project that is creating a scientific framework for the ecological assessment and sustainable management of the Tampa Bay watershed’s trees and forested ecosystems along the urban-wildland continuum. You will also learn about the Centers’ recent training and outreach activities, recommended resources, and upcoming events related to urban and interface forestry.

El Yunque National Forest, located in eastern Puerto Rico, provides a variety of ecosystem services—including clean air, water, and recreation—that are essential to the well-being of people in communities surrounding the forest and beyond. Rapid changes in urban and built-up areas in eastern Puerto Rico have put El Yunque under high pressure for urban development. These changes can alter forest processes and functions, and thus the services provided by the forest. Zoning regulations for guiding urban expansion and minimizing its effects on the forest have had limited success; much of the urban expansion during the past decades has occurred within zoning districts where urban uses were not originally planned. This limited success has resulted from poor enforcement of zoning regulations; it could also be a result of the implementation of top-down models of land use and resource management that often excludes people at different levels, such as local communities and other stakeholders.

To begin to address these issues, we developed a study that incorporated the views and perspectives of different stakeholders regarding the ecosystem services provided by El Yunque. We developed a methodology that integrates different research methods and participatory techniques. The techniques can help natural resource managers, specialists, and researchers of other national and state forests better understand peoples’ knowledge and awareness of ecosystem services and the factors affecting these services. The techniques and the products resulting from them can be used to assist in the management and planning of land use, ecosystem services, and natural resources in general.

To learn more about this project click here.

To read the latest issue of our Leaves of Change newsletter that focused on this project click here.

The United Nations (UN) General Assembly designated 2011 as International Year of Forests (IYOF). This designation provides an excellent platform to increase awareness of the connections between healthy forests, ecosystems, people, societies, and economies.

Additional information can be found at the UN website: http://www.un.org/en/events/iyof2011/.

In this Update we feature the following topics (1) Special Feature: Archived Changing Roles Webinar on Ecosystem Goods and Services; (2) Research: Urban and Peri-Urban Forest Indicators for Assessing Ecosystem Services and Goods ; (3) Upcoming Event: A Community on Ecosystem Services (ACES) 2010 ; (4) In the News: Money Can Grow on Trees; (5) Literature: Caring for Our Natural Assets: An Ecosystem Services Perspective ; and (6)Website: USDA Forest Service Ecosystem Services.

A USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station (NRS) report released in September 2010, Sustaining America’s Urban Trees and Forests, can help those who manage and care about urban trees and forests to increase public awareness of their importance, their many benefits, and the various factors that challenge the management of these critical resources.

Both electronic and printed copies of Sustaining America’s Urban Trees and Forests can be ordered at www.nrs.fs.fed.us/pubs/35572 .