What is a management plan?

     In the last post, the urban forestry field was explained along with the responsibilities of an urban forester. We learned that urban forestry is a field that involves multiple different studies to properly manage the urban forest. One of the things that can be pointed out is the amount of planning involved in urban forestry and that caring for it isn’t as simple as planting trees and removing branches it involves an entire urban forestry management plan. Management plans are how urban foresters achieve a healthy and equitable urban forest. These plans establish a course of action for caring for the urban forest, establish goals, identify and reduce tree risks, establish ways to keep the urban forest healthy, and help us increase and maintain the number of trees in certain areas. Urban forest management plans are designed to establish proper management, how to utilize that management, establish how we will benefit from that management, how to execute that management, and determine the end results of following this plan. 

Urban forestry management plans also break down the current benefits and values from the urban forest by doing assessments of trees, collecting tree inventories, and determining which trees benefit us the most. Urban Forestry management plans take all this information described to determine and create a long-lasting plan that will execute not only proper management but management that helps establish the overall goals we want out of the urban forest and establishes the importance of meeting these goals. Urban forestry management plans are how urban forests are cared for by determining problems in the urban forest, how to fix and change these problems, how to accomplish these problems, and help determine how to get proper funding and support. Without urban forestry plans, urban forests become overgrown, increase pests and diseases in the forest, damage infrastructures, and become risks to the people who live there. Urban Forestry plants help maintain the urban forest because they establish what aspects need to care for and why, how the management should be done, and help urban foresters manage the forest in a way that maximizes the social, environmental, and economical benefits the urban forest brings us. As time goes on what the urban forest needs will change so it is important to remember that urban forestry plans are written to change based on the evaluation of the forest and evaluation of plans. 

This video shows a bartlett tree expert describing how he established a plan for a town he was working in:

Lastly, the best way to understand an urban forestry plan and get a better sense of what is involved in them is to read one yourself so I have attached a link to the Bozeman Urban Forestry plan to browse:  https://www.bozeman.net/home/showdocument?id=3621 

Citation: Miller, R. W., Hauer, R. J., & Werner, L. P. (2015). Urban Forestry: Planning and Managing Urban Greenspaces, Third Edition (3rd ed.). Waveland Press, Inc.  Chapter 8, Policy, Planning, and the urban forest