Urban Forest Master Plan Species Designation Update Public - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Urban Forest Master Plan Species Designation Update Public Landscape Division Urban Forest Task Force’s Species Subcommittee

Presentation Outline  City of Santa Monica’s Urban Forest  2011 Urban Forest Master Plan  Updated Species Selection  City’s Future Urban Forest  Street Tree Planting Priority Model

Santa Monica’s Urban Forest 33,000 public trees 28,000 street trees 3

Santa Monica’s Urban Forest 4

2011 Urban Forest Master Plan Strengths • Comprehensive & Living document • City Council approved • Broke City into 394 management segments • Defined diversity plan – 10% per species • Good levels of Community input • Native & new species selected Strengths Weaknesses Weaknesses • Relatively Low diversity goal • Climate change (drought) not considered • Some invasive species selected • Only one species choice on many segments • Planting space not always linked to species • Unproven species specified • Some species not available from growers • No planting priority plan included

Planning for Drought Stress 55% of public trees in Santa Monica have a moderate water demand and 44% are categorized as low (Xiao & McPherson, 2015)

Poor Performance of New Species Introductions

Reducing Future Management Costs

A Systematic Street Tree Species Selection Process

Improve Species Diversity Authors Diversity Recommendations Miller and Miller (1991); Smiley, No species shall exceed 10% of the Kielbaso and Proffer (1986) population No species should exceed 5% and no Kielbaso (1989) genus should exceed 10% Plant no more than 10% of any species, no more than 20% of any genus and no Santamour (2002) more than 30% of any family

Species Selection Criteria Biological Physical Climate appropriate Will not require and sustainable constant pruning with minimal to contain additional physical size resources Right Tree,Right Place

Species Selection Matrix

Selecting Species per Segment Was the Confirm a Presence Is the Species Primary Parkway of Current Selected in and Width Overhead Species 2011 UFMP Secondary Wires Successful? Suitable? Species

Where Are We Now, Where Are We Going to Be? 14% 12% 59 Primary Species in Total 10% Current Future 8% 6% 4% 2% 0%

Wilshire Medians 15

Olympic Boulevard Median 16

Getting to the Future Street Tree Planting Prioritization: A Five-Year Plan

Planting Prioritization Model • Urban Forest Street Tree • Population Need Planting • Environmental Priority Need

Towards a Sustainable Future 22

Thank You! If you have questions about your block, please complete a comment card or call the Public Landscape Office at 310 458 8974.