Developing an Urban Forest Management Plan for Hurricane-Prone Communities

Francisco Escobedo, Rob Northrop, and Wayne Zipperer


Abstract

An effective urban forest management and planning process should be developed and implemented before damage from a windstorm or hurricane occurs. It can also be used as a blue print for post-hurricane response to damage after a storm. This fact sheet brings together the information and tools from previous fact sheets in this hurricane recovery series. It also changes the focus to the community rather than the homeowner or arborist and from individual trees to the urban forest. A management plan needs to be developed for the entire communitys urban forest, which includes all the trees on public and private properties. Communities (e.g. neighborhoods, homeowner associations, towns, or cities) can manage their tree resources to meet common goals and objectives using this process which is outlined by discussing seven general approaches to developing an urban forest management plan for hurricane-prone communities.

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Footnotes

1. This document is FOR121 (originally published January 2007 as Chapter 14 of the Urban Forest Hurricane Recovery Program), one of a series of the School of Forest Resources and Conservation Department and the Department of Environmental Horticulture, UF/IFAS Extension. Original publication date January 2007. Reviewed June 2020. Visit the EDIS website at https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu.
2. Francisco Escobedo, professor at the Universidad del Rosario, Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics in Bogota, Colombia; Robert Northrop, urban and community forester, UF/IFAS Extension Hillsborough County; and Wayne Zipperer, research forester, USDA Forest Service; UF/IFAS Extension, Gainesville, FL 32611.