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. (JJJBIIJV r 1 i Tile Safi >k Ol the answers, but it shows some clear trends. And it proves without a doubt that urban forests need our help. T is important to understand the conditions revealed by the survey. Tree - maintenance programs have been cut in 70 percent of the cities surveyed. Routine maintenance 1 Trees programs do not even exist in 45 percent of the cities, and crisis manage- ment is the normal operating proce- dure. That means the tree -care crews t i By BOB SKIERA and GARY MOLL respond only to emergency calls and ♦ citizen complaints. Managers do not have the funds they need to care for the basic health needs of their trees. Our 20 -city survey reveals that the budget ax They can't remove dead or damaged branches before they cause I is felling tree programs nationwide, and our damage —they can clean up only after problems occur. What they are manag- streets are sure to get meaner as a result. ing is the slow demise of their urban forest. There were some positive signs, includ- mortality of exist- City Tree - Planting Levels ing a modest increase ing trees increas- in new trees planted es. i;,:.-',7 ; along city streets in Though trees a +v.,° _- z'` 1991, but a review of espite an all -time are a fundamen- ' ' •�` -� r,iz:- . :.. k the budget plans for # increase last year in tal building block "` °. = next year shows that I. citizen and business of a healthy {w cities will do less on action in support of urban environ- } many fronts, and tree- urban trees, most ment, nearly half , is care programs will city programs to plant and maintain of the cities CURRENT PLANTING LEVEL PLANTING LEVEL receive more than the urban forest are in deep decline. surveyed do not PLANTING REQUIRED TO REQUIRED TO Fill, their share of cuts. As LEVEL MMNTMN EXISTING AND KEEP FULL, All An American Forestry Association have routine TREE co UNT (4 PLANTING SPACES (7 one city forester put it, survey of 20 U.S. cities, completed late street -tree main- TIMES CURRENT TIME5 CURREN "Once the trees are Y p PLANTING LEVEL) PLANTING LEVEL) last year and showcased before the tenance planted, they are basi- 1,000 participants in the Fifth National programs that cally on their own." Urban Forestry Conference in Los are critical to the health of the urban Ironically, this decline in urban forest Angeles, found that though the aver- forest. The survey also revealed that programs comes at a time when public age number of street trees planted was more than half of the suitable tree- concern for trees is at an all -time high. up almost 4 percent in 1991, it will planting spaces along city streets are More than ever before, people are decline by 14 percent in 1992. And the empty, and that the average life of a volunteering time or working for local problem will be compounded as the downtown street tree is just 13 years. tree groups at a minimum wage in an Data from the 20 -city survey gives a effort to help build better urban Bob Skiera retired recently as the City detailed profile of the health of urban forests. Interest in AFA's Global ReLeaf Forester for Milwaukee, and Gary Moll is forests across the country. This campaign is soaring, and even electric AFA's vice president for urban forestry. sampling method does not provide all utility customers, when asked about 61 AMERICAN FORESTS MARCH/APRIL 1992