Southern Urban and Interface Forests - What's New

Through a partnership between the Blue Ridge Foundation’s Kids in Parks Program, University of Florida, USDA Forest Service and City of Gainesville Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs Department, a network of family-friendly outdoor adventure trails that engage children with nature and promote healing and wellness, called Track Trails, has come to Gainesville, FL.

Hochatown, Oklahoma boasts abundant ecological diversity and has a rich cultural history that includes conflicts over land rights, forced resettlement by Native American tribes, extractive natural resource industries, and more recently luxury cabin development and a burgeoning recreation industry. This story map, titled "Pine Resin in the Blood: A Historical Account of Hochatown Culture and Wildfire Risk,"  is the first in a series that will incorporate information about the current wildland-urban interface (WUI) fire situation of the area, proposed WUI management actions on the Ouachita National Forest, and ultimately findings from several related research projects being conducted by Southern Research Station scientists.

The Kids in the Woods program in Gainesville, Florida delivers science instruction to middle school students through a series of hands-on activities outdoors on the school campus and in a nearby nature park. This article reports on the results of a 10-question pre-post assessment of students’ knowledge of the scientific process. Participants included 201 6th grade students at a public middle school participating in the Kids in the Woods program. Students improved significantly on four of the ten questions after participation in the program, indicating that students learned important terminology related to the scientific method and how to interpret a graph. The positive results suggest that using the outdoors as a platform for science education can be a valuable tool for improving the learning experience for students.

These case studies provide practical examples of how science-based tree credits have been developed and adopted in three different regulatory contexts: Minnesota, Vermont,and the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Case studies are adapted from the publication "Urban Forest Systems and Green Stormwater Infrastructure" by the USDA Forest Service.

Stormwater utilities were interested in learning how viable urban forest systems are in helping them manage stormwater runoff, so the Water Research Foundation and U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities commissioned a study. The overall goal of this project was to document the contribution of urban tree systems to stormwater nutrient and volume control in terms of their effectiveness at various scales, cost, desirability, and practicality. An associated set of tools was developed to enable water utilities and other stormwater professionals to apply project findings, including: (1) simplified models to predict event and annual runoff reductions by urban tree canopy, (2) an urban tree cost-benefit value database, and (3) an urban forest hydrology curricula targeted to utilities to more effectively integrate urban tree systems within stormwater management frameworks.

On August 22, the National Environmental Education Foundation partnered with the USDA Forest Service and UF Health Shands Children’s Hospital in Gainesville, Florida, to host a Nature Champion Training in anticipation of the long-awaited Nature Explore Classroom currently under construction at Shands. This outdoor classroom, the UF Health Children’s Healing Garden, is a nature-based play and learning space designed to promote health by creating nature connections for patients, children, families and medical staff. This project is funded by the Washington Office, Region 8 and private donors. The Forest Service has a national-level partnership with the Dimensions Educational Research Foundation related to the Nature Explore program and has sponsored the building of Nature Explore classrooms at strategic locations around the country.

An Urban Tree Canopy (UTC) assessment provides a measure of a community’s tree canopy cover at high resolution, and is often used for establishing and implementing municipal tree canopy goals as part of broader urban greening and sustainability initiatives. The USDA Forest Service has produced a new report detailing the initial steps of UTC project planning, assessment, and data analysis, including general guidelines for conducting assessments and analysis to ensure useful, quality results that can be applied in planning, management, and decision-making .The report can be accessed on the Vibrant Cities Lab, an innovative multi-faceted web platform that can help professionals, policymakers, and the public access the best available science, understand the value of investing in our urban and community forests, and take concrete steps to plant better, more effective and efficient urban and community forestry programs.

Urban Nature for Human Health and Well-Being, a new report by the USDA Forest Service’s National Urban Forestry Technology and Science Delivery Team, shares the most current research related to nature and public health, providing a resource to help natural resource professionals, health professionals, urban planners, architects, educators, and community groups effectively communicate the health benefits of nature to their constituents. The report provides an overview of the current research in five key areas: pollution and physical health, active living, mental health, stress reduction, and social health, cohesion, and resilience, and discusses issues of social equity and access to nature in urban environments.

The City of Gainesville Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs presented the Star Good Neighbor Award to the Kids in the Woods team on March 26, 2019.

The Forest Service's National Urban Forest Technology and Science Delivery Team (NTSD) was formed in November 2013 with the goal of improving the agency’s ability to deliver state-of-the-knowledge information to city planners and natural resource practitioners, in the most rapid and accessible ways possible.