Browsing by Subject "Urban forestry"
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Item Building urban and community forestry capacity through manipulative social and physical infrastructure changes(2014-10) Dierich, AndreaFunding and staffing for urban and community forestry (U&CF) has decreased significantly over the last decade. This strain has hampered programs and affects the health of the urban forest. As our globalized market increases, invasive species become a growing threat that U&CF programs struggle with in their debilitating state. The invasive species, emerald ash borer, has the ability to cause catastrophic harm to Minnesota communities due to the high percentage of ash on public owned property. In an effort to provide assistance, and build capacity for dealing with emerald ash borer, the Emerald Ash Borer: Rapid Response project was developed. This project utilized volunteers and community gravel beds to build U&CF infrastructure to increase the ability of a community to manage not just emerald ash borer, but develop a successful and sustaining U&CF program. The intensive and direct assistance method used in the project provides new ways for states and other organizations to consider building and tracking U&CF capacity in communities.Item Influence of Urban Tree Canopy on Single-Family Residential Structure Energy Consumption at the Community Scale in Hutchinson, Minnesota(2013-07) Potyondy, Philip JohnCommunity forests are vulnerable to invasive pests and a changing climate. Urban forests provide a host of environmental, social, and economic benefits to communities. Cold, long, and windy winters dominate the energy budget of upper Midwest communities. Hot and humid summers are becoming increasingly constant. Quantifying the relationship between energy use and trees has been simulated and estimated in a variety of ways. Few studies have successfully measured this interaction across the landscape, especially in heating dominated climates. Digitized urban tree canopy data at multiple scales has been correlated with weather adjusted normalized energy consumption data while controlling for a variety of housing characteristics. A significant relationship between increased tree canopy and reduced winter heating energy consumption is found at 500-1100 feet (p<0.01), and also from 400-1500 feet (p<0.05) from parcels. Summer cooling energy reduction from increased tree canopy at the parcel (p<0.05) and distances beyond 900 feet (p<0.10) was also found significant. Saving energy with urban forest canopy is a community scale opportunity and obligation.Item Predictive equations for crown diameter and trunk flare diameter at ground line for four urban landscape tree species in Minnesota(2013-12) North, Eric AlanTrees are an integral part of the urban landscape, from our backyards to lining our streets. Media outlets cover disease and invasive pest issues in urban forests, but there is little mention regarding infrastructure and planting challenges facing urban foresters. Research has shown urban trees have numerous benefits for society, many of which are not realized until trees have grown to a significant size. However, many trees are removed every year due to their negative impacts on urban infrastructure before their benefits are fully realized. Trunk flares and roots can lift sidewalks, and tree canopies often interfere with buildings or overhead utilities. This study's intent was to create biological growth models for two tree genera that are commonly used as street trees in Minnesota landscapes with the goal of reducing infrastructure damage as a result of conflicts with urban trees. The models will provide urban foresters and urban planners with a practical method for predicting trunk diameter at ground line and crown width in order to improve urban infrastructure planning that involves hardscapes and trees.Item Twin Cities urbanization and implications for urban forest ecosystem services.(2012-05) Berland, Adam MichaelUrbanization affects ecological structure and function by impacting the provision of ecosystem services, or benefits we derive from the environment. It is broadly acknowledged that ecosystem services should be formally considered in land management decisions, but inadequate scientific understanding of urban ecological systems is a key obstacle to achieving this goal. In this dissertation, I address this shortcoming by assessing the relationships between urbanization and the urban forest, a key urban ecological component. The three studies described here demonstrate spatial and temporal effects of urbanization on urban forest structure, function, and value in Minnesota's Twin Cities Metropolitan Area. In the first study, I used historical air photos to analyze past trends in tree canopy cover related to urbanization and other land cover changes. Urbanization events generally reduced tree canopy cover, but urban sites rapidly afforested following development. Older urban neighborhoods typically had higher tree canopy cover than newly developed areas. In the second study, I used factor analysis on a suite of urbanization indicator variables to derive an urbanization gradient that is more sophisticated than a simple urban-rural distance-based gradient. This synthetic gradient was strongly related to more types of urban forest structural variables than the distance-based gradient, highlighting the influence of secondary urbanization trends on urban forest structure. In the final study, I stratified the study area by property parcel land use, and compared estimated urban forest structure, function, and value across land use classes. Residential and undeveloped areas both had higher urban forest values than non-residential developed areas, but were not statistically different from one another. This study showed which types of urban land uses promote good urban forest structure and function, and the results can be used to guide future urban forest study designs. All three studies demonstrate the need to consider complexities associated with human-environmental systems. Two major themes were the importance of temporally lagged tree growth and nonlinear urban-ecological relationships. By making these complexities more visible, this research will improve the design of future work, so that we can develop a more complete and nuanced understanding of the effects of urbanization on the urban forest.