Growing Climate Resilient Urban Forests

Tuesday, June 13, 2023, 10:00-11:30 a.m.

While our urban forests are threatened by both climate change and rapid urbanization, they’re also part of the solution. Trees — the backbone of nature in our urban areas — sequester carbon and provide many other environmental and public health benefits. We need to protect and plant more trees in our cities, but which trees, and where, and how? This webinar offers guidance from Bay Area experts on ways to ensure resilient urban forests, providing useful tools to decision-makers, from elected officials to city planners, arborists, tree growers, and landscape architects.

This program was made possible by a generous grant from the Santa Clara County Office of Sustainability.

Speaker Resources

Dr. Erica Spotswood (she/her), Director of Science and Senior Ecologist, Second Nature

Presentation Slides

Email: [email protected]

Dave Muffly (he/him), Former Senior Arborist, Apple

Dave’s website: Oaktopia.org

Presentation Slides

Email: [email protected]

Dr. Dave Fujino (he/him), Director, California Center for Urban Horticulture

Presentation Slides

Email: [email protected]

Questions & Answers

Find questions and answers here: Webinar Questions & Answers (PDF)

Additional Resources

Research

• Cities Are Rethinking What Kinds of Trees They’re Planting, Discover, April 12, 2023
• Re-Oaking Silicon Valley: Building Vibrant Cities with Nature
• USDA ForeCASTS Climate-Associated shifts in tree species project
• Assisted Migration and Rewilding of Plants and Animals in an Era of Rapid Climate Change (annotated list of research, articles, and news reports)
• Making Nature’s Cities: A Science-based Framework for Building Urban Biodiversity
• Ecology for Health: A project to link biodiversity and human health
• Biological deserts fallacy paper
• Nature inequity across the US
• Local green gap findings
• The impact of climate-change induced temperature increases on the suitability of street tree species in California (USA) cities
• Warming and pest research on Acer rubrum
• Street trees in southern California and bird diversity

Water Use for Trees

• Water Use Classification of Landscape Species (WUCOLS): database provides evaluations of the irrigation water needs for over 3,500 taxa (taxonomic plant groups) used in California landscapes.
• WUCOLS Tree List for San Jose
• Scheduling irrigation run times for large trees irrigated by drip for San Jose
• Investigating the impacts of recycled water on long-lived conifers

Tools & Guides

• SelecTree: An online tool designed to help you select “the right tree for the right place.” It is created and maintained by the Urban Forest Ecosystems Institute at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.
• Cal-Adapt: Cal-Adapt provides a view of how climate change might affect California
• Green Schoolyards of America’s California Tree Palette: This tree palette is intended for school districts, landscape architects, and school communities to be able to easily select trees that will thrive with climate change and that are appropriate for a schoolyard setting. 
• Gardening for Habitat: A guide to help residents plan and install gardens that use California native plants and trees to create habitat for native wildlife.

Canopy Resources

• Canopy’s Resilient Trees for a New Climate Webinar (July 2020)
• Canopy’s Bridging Trees and Health Webinar (March 2021)