Evan Beresford Publishes Urban Forestry Commentary Piece with Mongabay

FCCP Program Associate, Evan Beresford, published a commentary piece with Mongabay titled, “Five ways to increase tree cover in cities.”

Street trees in San Francisco. Image courtesy of Photo by Vladimir Kudinov on Unsplash.
Street trees in San Francisco. Image courtesy of Photo by Vladimir Kudinov on Unsplash.

As U.S. cities continue to experience intense heatwaves and rising summer temperatures, increasing tree cover in urban areas can be a crucial step to improve infrastructure and help cities stay cool. Evan Beresford, FCCP Program Associate, highlights current barriers to expanding urban tree canopy cover in a commentary piece recently published with Mongabay. These barriers include high rates of tree mortality; planting, maintenance, and removal costs; capacity limitations within municipal forestry, parks, and recreation departments; lack of technical knowledge; and limited public support.

Beresford states, “These barriers can overlap and create negative feedback loops amongst themselves, intensifying and cementing their impacts. It is critical that decision-makers have an awareness of the challenges trees face in urban settings, as well as an understanding of how to overcome these barriers. . . .Trees are as integral to city infrastructure as sidewalks and power lines.”

The MSU Forest Carbon and Climate Program is currently developing an Urban Forestry course, coming soon in 2024. Click here to preview the upcoming course graphics, available on the FCCP Open Resource Library.

Read the full Mongabay article here.

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