Sharon London, Executive Director

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WRPA Leadership Forum February 26, 2009

• Sharon London, Executive Director
• Ella Elman, Ecologist

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Outline

• Introduction - SUN
• Urban Forests 101
• Forest Inventories and Assessments
• City of Shoreline
• City of Bellevue
• City of Seattle
• Now What?
• Making a plan
• Community involvement
• Tracking progress

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Introduction
SUNs Mission create tools to empower stewards
for healthy urban ecosystems.
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SUN Programs
5
SUN Services
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Urban Forests 101

• Ecosystem services
• Human benefits
• Need for restoration

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Ecosystem Services

• Reduce storm water runoff
• Improve water quality
• Reduce erosion
• Provide wildlife habitat
• Improve air quality
• Reduce global warming
• Source Green Seattle Partnership website

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Human Benefits

• Increase property values (15)
• Provide recreation opportunities
• Make communities more attractive
• Buffer noise
• Increase pedestrian corridors
• Cure for nature deficit disorder

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Invasive Non-Native Plants and Forest Restoration
Source Cascade Land Conservancy
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Need for Forest Restoration
Source Cascade Land Conservancy
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Need for Forest Restoration
Source Cascade Land Conservancy
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Why Assess Habitat Condition?

• To understand existing conditions (if you dont
  know what you have, how can you manage
  effectively?)
• Benchmark for goals for adaptive management
• To make use of limited resources

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Forest Inventories and Assessments
1,000
10,000
100
Forested Acres
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Forest Inventory and Assessment in Shoreline

• The city of Shoreline owns approximately 375
  acres of public open space
• SUN was contracted in 2007 to survey and map 184
  acres of public parks in Shoreline
• South Woods (16 acres)
• Hamlin Park (80 acres)
• Shoreview (48 acres)
• Boeing Creek (40 acres)

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Project Phases

• Habitat type delineation and mapping
• Data collection
• Data analysis and reporting

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Data collection

• 1/10 acre plots in 5 of all forested park areas
• Trees, snags and downed wood

- species - density - diameter - height

• Shrubs, vines and herbaceous species
• percent cover
• Plot locations and significant invasive weed
  infestations mapped with GPS

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Hamlin Park
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Hamlin Park Habitat Types

• Conifer Forest (with understory) (34 acres) (17
  plots)
• Conifer Forest (without understory) (15 acres)
  (7 plots)
• Conifer/Deciduous Forest (7 acres) (4 plots)
• Madrone/Conifer Forest (3 acres) (3 plots)
• Madrone/Deciduous Forest (.4 acre) (1 plot)
• Shrubland (2.5 acres)
• Landscaped Areas (9 acres)
• Developed Areas (7 acres)

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Hamlin Park Inventory

• A total of 76 plant species found
• 22 tree species (12 native and 10 non-native)
• 21 shrub species (13 native and 8 non-native)
• 33 herbaceous and vine species (19 native, 13
  non-native,
• and one unknown grass species)

Summer coralroot (Corallorhiza maculata) in
Hamlin park, a perennial saprophyte that derives
its nutrients from decaying organic matter
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Hamlin Park Invasive Species Findings

• Non-native regeneration 6x greater than native
  regeneration
• English holly, sweet cherry, Norway maple and
  European mountain ash main invasive species

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Hamlin Park Invasive Mapping
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Hamlin Park Management Issues

• Conifer forest without understory is 15 acres of
  area that is of concern within this park.
• Lack of a formal trail network, leading to
  trampling of vegetation-free areas.
• SUN designed an experiment to study various soil
  treatments and shrub andherb species to
  re-vegetate bare areas.

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Hamlin Park Re-vegetation Study
How can we re-vegetate bare areas?

• Soil Tests Samples indicate low pH
• Soil amendments which is most effective?
• No amendment
• Compost
• Mulch
• Test different shrub and herb species appropriate
  for low Ph soils

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Sample Plot Layout at Hamlin Park
shrub
groundcover
Not drawn to scale
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Preliminary Results Year 1
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Forest Inventories and Assessments
1,000
10,000
100
Forested Acres
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City of Bellevue Forest Inventory

• The City of Bellevue Urban Forestry manages 1,800
  acres of public lands
• SUN created models to classify forest conditions
  throughout the city
• The models incorporate economic as well as
  ecological parameters by evaluating ecosystem
  services

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Condition Class Assessment

• Bellevue wanted to assess the condition class of
  forested areas for seven management categories
• Forest health
• Wildlife habitat
• Water quality and storm water retention
• Air quality
• Recreation
• Noise buffering
• Safety

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Forest Condition Assessment Model

• Identify quantifiable inputs in each of the seven
  management categories
• Collect information about these inputs
• SUN designed a simple field protocol that enabled
  a rapid assessment of each park
• In 2008, SUN trained Bellevue staff to collect
  this information
• Data was collected for over 700 acres of public
  lands within the city

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Forest Condition Assessment Model
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Forest Health Rankings
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Forest Health Results

• The Forest Health category contains 14 input
  factors into the FCAM, with scores ranging from
  -6 to 15
• Based on the scores, forest health was divided
  into four classes, with Class 1 representing the
  best health and Class 4 representing the worst
  health
• Out of 705 surveyed acres
• Class 1 - 204 acres (29)
• Class 2 - 336 acres (48)
• Class 3 - 123 acres (17)
• Class 4 - 42 acres (6)

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Forest Health
Where are all the Class 4 forests in the city?
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Forest Health

• Of the Class 4 forests, how many stands are
  conifer or mixed conifer/deciduous and where are
  they located?
• (6 stands and 10 acres)

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Forest Health

• Where are all the areas with high levels of
  invasive tree species within the city and how
  many of those are located in Class 1 forests?
• (5 stands and 26 acres)

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Forest Inventories and Assessments
1,000
10,000
100
Forested Acres
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1999-2000 Seattle Habitat Survey

• 8,000 acres of public lands in Seattle
• Classified habitat types throughout the city
• Vegetation information collected
• Species names
• Percent cover
• Resource for restoration
• efforts

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Seattle Habitat Survey
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• SUN 1999-2000 Data in Use

Green Seattle Partnership Tree-iage Analysis
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SUN Interactive Habitat Map
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SUN Interactive Habitat Map
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Now What?

• Making a plan
• Community involvement
• Tracking progress

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Making a Plan
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Example Juanita Bay Park

• Created Action Plan for priority activities
• Targeted removal of contained invasive species
• Removal and management of noxious weeds
• Maintenance and enhancement of previously
  restored areas
• Prioritizing new areas for restoration with
  planting and maintenance plans
• In 2009- partnering with EarthCorps to implement
  the Action Plan

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Community Involvement

• Washington Native Plant Stewards
• Invasive removal- local schools, scouts, etc.
• Helps if people understand urban forestry 101

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Green Cities Partnership

• Cascade Land Conservancy
• Public-private partnerships with local
  governments
• Community-based stewardship programs for
  forested parklands and community open spaces

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Monitoring Progress

• Tracking locations and sizes of restoration
  areas
• Tracking restoration activities within each
  area
• Tracking restoration events and volunteers
• Tracking city-wide restoration progress through
  monitoring

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Tracking Progress- GSP example

• Mapping restoration areas in each park
• Collecting baseline data for each site
• Creating an Access database to track all
  restoration events inSeattle
• Implementing a citywide monitoring program that
  includes 10 of all restoration sites

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Conclusion

• Know what you have
• Make a plan
• Implement the plan and involve the community for
  long term success
• Track your progress (especially if you need
  accountability and funding!)

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Thank You!
Questions? Comments?
sharon_at_seattleurbannature.org ella_at_seattleurbannat
ure.org [phone]
www.seattleurbannature.org