Tree Management Plans

& Your Community

The Morton Arboretum 4100 Illinois Route 53, Lisle, IL 60532 mortonarb.org/community-trees

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Tree Tools

Tree Management Plans

& Your Community

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Tree Tools

Tree Ordinances

& Your Community

WHAT IS A TREE MANAGEMENT PLAN?

A tree management plan outlines how your community will protect and care for one of its greatest assets---its trees. Trees are an important part of a community's green infrastructure, as essential as roads, bridges, or sewer mains. But trees, unlike other types of infrastructure perform better and gain value over time. They are the only infrastructure that improves with age.

Green Infrastructure is the interconnected network of natural systems that provide life support functions. Example: streams, trees, plants, soils, air

Grey Infrastructure is the network of manmade systems that transport water,

waste, chemicals, and pollutants---often directing these materials to green infrastructure. Example: roads, sewers, water mains

WHY SHOULD YOU HAVE A TREE MANAGEMENT PLAN? Trees are an asset to your entire community. They improve our air, water, and soil through their biological functions. Trees provide aesthetic and monetary value to our communities by increasing our property values and improving our quality of life. A tree management plan, like a stormwater, street, or sewer management plan, protects the important infrastructure on which we depend.

Figure 1

Bigger is better!

1, 8-inch-dbh (diameter at breast height) oak tree

intercepts 511 gallons of stormwater each

year.

1, 16-inch-dbh oak trees intercept 1,653

gallons of stormwater each year. Bigger trees provide bigger benefits!

Trees increase in size and value over time. They are the only infrastructure that

improves with age!

What are some of the benefits that trees provide? o Trees remove pollution from the air. o Trees store and sequester carbon. o Trees reduce energy usage due to their ability to

shield buildings from sun and wind. o Trees reduce ambient air temperature helping to

offset "heat island" effects. o Trees intercept stormwater. o Trees improve our health by helping to keep our air

and water clean. o Trees improve our emotional health. o Trees improve our social behavior. o Trees provide oxygen. o Trees improve our property values. o Trees provide habitat for wildlife.

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Tree Tools

Tree Management Plans

& Your Community

HOW DO YOU GET STARTED?

Start where you are. Each community is unique and has different needs. Take a look at where you are in the care and management of your trees and start there. What can you accomplish with the resources you have? Be sure to have reasonable expectations. Set goals. What is your vision for your community? What would you do if you had more resources? Make a list of these goals. Keep these goals close at hand while you develop your plan. Enlist tree supporters. Are there residents in your community whom you could call upon to be your tree advocates? Would they be willing to be trained for the role? These important individuals can support your efforts, advocate for your plan, volunteer to help care for trees, and extend your budget! Engage property owners. In most communities, the majority of trees are on private property. Your management plan needs to address all trees in the community, not just those on public land. Make sure private property owners are involved in the development of the plan so it has their support. Involve the community. Be sure to include members of your community and your forestry staff in developing the plan so that it will be responsive to local needs and have broad support. Start by creating an advisory committee, including residents, property owners, and members of your staff who care for trees, and ask committee members and the public for comments and ideas.

Source: arborday.org

Source: swco.ttu.edu

CREATE A TREE BOARD OR COMMISSION Educated, caring members of the community can be powerful advocates for your community forest and the resources to care for it. A tree management planning process is the perfect opportunity to set up a permanent advisory group tasked with making recommendations to the local government on behalf of the care, protection, and planting of trees. Members should receive training to understand trees and tree care practices. Here are some tasks you may wish your board or commission to be involved in:

Development of a tree management plan

Tree City USA application and compliance

Tree ordinance review and updates Forestry budget review and

recommendations Tree protection recommendations Priority project recommendations Developing an invasive species

watch and readiness plan Fundraising for tree planting and

special projects Private property recommendations Cost-share or other incentive

programs for residents

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Tree Tools

Tree Management Plans

& Your Community

cause WHAT KNOWLEDGE DO YOU NEED? Your tree management plan needs to be based on facts and knowledge. To prepare: Assess your trees. If your community has done a tree inventory, this information will be valuable in creating your plan. Knowing what trees you have, what condition they are in, their size, their species, and where they are located will help you identify the needs and costs associated with caring for them. If you do not have a tree inventory, this is a good time to take one. Even if you inventory only a portion of your community each year, it will help make your plan more specific to your needs. Identify problems. Know what invasive species, pests, and pathogens are in your community forest or are on the way. Know where you have trees in decline which might require treatment, pruning, or removal. Establish a value for the community forest. Numbers that show concrete values for trees are helpful in building support. Once you know what trees you have and how trees contribute to the health of the environment and a community's quality of life, you will be able to calculate a selected value for one tree or all of your trees. With the help of tools such as the iTree or the National Tree Benefit Calculator, values can be displayed based on such factors as the amount of pollution trees absorb to minimize air quality problems, the amount of water trees absorb to reduce the amount of stormwater, and the amount of energy they save by providing shade and buffer for buildings.

WHAT SHOULD YOU DO IN YOUR PLAN? Explain the benefits and function of trees. Help your readers see the value of trees as a community asset and understand how trees function so they can understand what needs to be in the plan. Provide specific examples from your community to illustrate important points. For example: It is important to protect the root systems of a tree from construction equipment. The majority of the roots of a tree extends out to the canopy and is located in the top 10 to 12 inches of soil. Equipment driven over these roots can damage or kill the tree.

EXAMPLE: Assume that 20 trees in a park are each 15 inches in diameter. Together, they have a cumulative diameter of 300 inches. If those trees had to be removed, they would not be replaced with 15-inch-diameter trees. Most communities install trees that are 2 to 2.5 inches in diameter. At 2.5 inches, it would take 120 trees to replace the 300 inches of trees. If those trees cost $250 each, the replacement value of the 20 trees is $30,000. (This does not include the lost value because bigger trees provide bigger benefits!)

300"/2.5" = 120 trees x $250 each = $30,000

A few things to include in a plan: A tree inventory Qualifications of staff Specifications and standards for care and

planting References to ordinances which include

trees: tree protection, stormwater, development, green infrastructure, etc.

Connection to comprehensive plan Tree maintenance and planting schedules Community mapping---identifying

priority areas and goals Plans for management of invasive species Short- and long-term goals Volunteer recruitment and training Disaster preparedness plan Forestry budgets - short- andlong-term

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Tree Tools

Tree Management Plans

& Your Community

Coordinate with tree ordinances. Make sure your plan agrees with your community's tree ordinance, if you have one. If not, this is a good opportunity to develop an ordinance or updated your current plan. Provide clear definitions. Many terms in your tree management plan may not be familiar to all readers. Be sure these terms are clearly defined so there is no confusion. They also may be defined in your tree ordinance, so make sure the definitions agree. Here are some examples of terms to define:

Certified arborist Conservancy area or natural area Deciduous tree Diameter at breast height (dbh) Diversity Easement Evergreen/coniferous tree Forestry department Green infrastructure Hazard Invasive species Line of sight obstruction Native species parkway Permit Pruning Right-of-way Transplanting Tree removal

Establish a standard of care. This may include schedules for regular risk assessments, pruning, and watering, as well as insecticide or fertilizer treatments for certain species. It may also include specifications for protection from construction impacts, such as sidewalk replacements and road improvements. Base your pruning and removal schedule on your inventory assessment. Determine whether this work can be done by existing staff or will require added personnel or contractors, and the costs associated with it. Your community's tree care standards for both public and private trees should be spelled out for these and other issues:

Proper planting Pruning Spacing and soil volume Soil content or profile Mulching Fertilizing Insecticide Utility maintenance Minimizing construction and development impacts Climbing and aerial maintenance Preservation of large or significant trees (See Resources, page 7)

Source: qualitytreesurgery.com

Source: The Morton Arboretum

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Tree Tools

Tree Management Plans

& Your Community

Specify staff qualifications. State the qualifications expected of those who will tend to your community forest. A certified arborist has studied and passed the International Society of Arborists (ISA) exam, showing that they understand the biology of trees and basic skills for their care. If you do not have a certified arborist on staff, set a goal to train or hire at least one. Select as a future goal that all staff who care for trees will be certified arborists or have completed a related degree program from an accredited school. Develop a planting strategy. This would include your tree inventory and an inventory of locations where trees will be needed or could be planted, ideally based on the need to achieve diversity. Consider forming collaborations with other communities or nursery consortia to source and purchase trees cost-effectively. To encourage tree planting on private property, you may wish to plan a program that includes cost-sharing, vouchers, tree adoption, memorial trees, or fundraising. Plans should be made to plant both in spring and in fall. Prepare for long-term maintenance. Review your capacity to maintain your current trees as well as the ones to be planted. Consider the future cost of maintaining trees as part of planting plans and budget. Plan to manage problems. Analyze and assess resources that can help you build into your plan a proactive approach to managing invasive and aggressive species, pests, or pathogens. Find or prepare fact sheets on various common invasive species, pests, or pathogens and consider including them as appendices. Provide links to information on your community's website. Be sure to include information which would be useful to private property owners. Organizations that can provide information and assistance include:

The Morton Arboretum (mortonarb.org) Your state's agriculture department Your state's natural resources department The Midwest Invasive Plant Network (mipn.org) Northeast Illinois Invasive Plant Partnership (niipp.net)

(See Resources, page 7) Set priorities and goals. Based on your staff and advisory committee's assessment of the current state of your community forest, identify key areas to be addressed. This might include planting; achieving species diversity; pruning schedule; removal of dead trees; and replacement. Set specific goals for the next five years.

Source: wtwt.com

Source: burnsville.org

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Tree Tools

Tree Management Plans

& Your Community

Plan how you will enlist tree lovers as volunteers. Educated volunteers can be among your most valuable resources. If they are well trained and regularly scheduled to assist with tree care and planting, they can substantially extend your program's or department's capacity. Here are some tips for organizing a volunteer program:

Spell out required skills and tasks for volunteers to do. Clearly identify who volunteers will work with. Establish a regular time commitment and schedule

of participation. Consider how a particular volunteer can work with one

of your staff on a regular basis. Help volunteers feel part of the team and thank them for

their participation and assistance. Provide training opportunities in forestry related tasks,

just as you would your staff. Encourage volunteers to participate in training programs

such as TreeKeepers, Master Gardeners, state pesticide training, driver's safety, and equipment operations training.

(See Resources, page 7) Create a disaster preparedness plan. With storms becoming more frequent and severe in a changing climate, this section of your Tree Management Plan is very important.

Coordinate your Tree Management Plan with your community's emergency preparedness plan. Identify who in the forestry department or organization will be responsible to head up the plan of

action. Identify in the appendices his/her qualifications and who reports to him/her. Work with utility companies on plans for emergency response. Who should your residents call in the

event of a problem? Provide scripts for office personnel who will be answering the phones. Map where the utility easements are and who owns them so that you can quickly identify

responsibility for those areas. Consider an annual contract for emergency tree assistance. Base the contract on time and materials.

Be sure to clearly state an expected response time following the emergency and any penalties for non-compliance.

Consider a joint assistance agreement with surrounding communities to share staff, equipment, and materials likely to be needed in the wake of a storm or other emergency.

Plan for renting extra equipment such as chippers, stump grinders, chain saws, and forklifts. You may wish to provide a list of rental facilities for this equipment in the appendices.

Identify locations where brush and materials may be staged for the short-term during cleanup. These locations may be parking lots of churches, schools, or commercial areas. Be sure to get an agreement ahead of time allowing use of these locations.

Consider contracting for emergency delivery of roll-off boxes for smaller debris, or include this service in your wastehauler contract.

Decide whether you will allow private property owners to use any of these resources and, if so, on what terms. Make it clear what residents should do in the event of an emergency.

Post instructions for residents on your website so that they can access this information quickly and easily.

Hourly rate for a volunteer $22.14

(independentsector.org)

1, 8-hour day per week

= $177.12 for 52 weeks =

$9,210.24

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Tree Tools

Tree Management Plans

& Your Community

YOU HAVE A PLAN. NOW WHAT?

Make your plan public. Publish it on your community's website. Make it available for and present it to officials, organizations, and interested residents. Prepare for feedback. Base your budget on your plan. Your short- and long-term forestry budgets are the implementation schedule for your tree management plan. Create a budget for the coming fiscal year and a five-year projection to achieve the goals identified in your plan. Here are some items to be included in the budget:

Staffing needs---salaries, training, memberships, certification, and travel Cost of trees and planting if you do not plant them yourselves or with volunteers Equipment purchases, repairs, rentals, and replacements (include life expectancy of equipment) All costs associated with the tree management plan including education, outreach, volunteer training,

website updates, etc. Develop an education and outreach strategy. Education and outreach are essential to building understanding and support for the community forest. Residents who support your tree management plan will support your budget. Provide regular articles and information to your residents or constituents on the care and management of both public and privately owned trees. When possible, include residents in training sessions on planting, mulching, and pruning trees. Engage them in volunteer opportunities and programs. Here are some suggested topics for articles or talks:

The benefits of trees How trees function Pruning Mulching Planting How construction can damage tree roots Watering parkway trees The need for species and age diversity in the community forest.

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Resources Arborist Training:

Illinois Arborist Association---illinoisarborist.org International Society of Arboriculture---isa-arbor.com Society of Municipal Arborists---urban-forestry.com Tree Care Industry Association---tcia.org Illinois Pesticide Training and Licensing--- agr.state.il.us/Environment/Pesticide/training/commappl.html

Benefits of Trees: Alliance for Community Trees---actrees.org National Tree Benefit Calculator---treebenefits.com/calculator Regional Tree Census---mortonarb.org

Disaster Preparedness: American Public Works Association---apwa.net International Society of Arboriculture---isa-arbor.com IL Public Works Mutual Air Network---IPWMAN.org

Green Infrastructure: Chicago Wilderness Green Infrastructure Vision--- chicagowilderness.org/what-we-do/protecting-green-infrastructure Environmental Protection Agency--- water.epa.gov/infrastructure/greeninfrastructure

Invasive Species: Illinois Department of Agriculture--- invasivespeciesinfo.gov/unitedstates/il.shtml Northeast Illinois Invasive Plant Partnership---niipp.net

Midwest Invasive Plant Network---mipn.org The Morton Arboretum---mortonarb.org U.S. Department of Agriculture--- www.fs.fed.us/invasivespecies Ordinances: Tree Ordinances & Your Community--- mortonarb.org/community-trees Sample Tree Ordinances---mortonarb.org/community-trees Tree Management Plans: Sample Tree Management Plans--- mortonarb.org/community-trees Standards: American National Standards Institute (ANSI)---ansi.org International Society of Arboriculture---Best Management Practices - isa.org Volunteers: Building Advocacy For Trees & Your community--- mortonarb.org/community-trees Illinois Tree Commission Training Manual--- mortonarb.org/community-trees Openlands TreeKeeper Program---openlands.org Tree Board University---treeboardu.org

For additional questions or resources contact The Community Trees Program at: communitytrees@mortonarb.org

Source: The Morton Arboretum

©June 2013 The Morton Arboretum