Artvoice
The Future of Buffalos Urban Forest
By Jay Burney
January 2007
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| Both photos depict Cumberland Avenue in South Buffalo the morning after the storm |
Buffalo’s urban forest has suffered tremendous damage as a result of the surprise October storm. How we clean up and approach a repair and restoration of this forest will characterize our community for generations to come. Will Buffalo ever again become the “City of Trees?” Here is why that it should.
Our urban forest is one of this communities most valuable assets. Mayor Brown characterized our forest in the days after the storm as “our treasure, our wealth”. Certainly most people recognize the aesthetic aspect. The rolling canopies of green line our streets, parkways, pathways, parks and yards. Children climb them, they are a song house of birds and insects, and in all seasons, a carillon of the winds. A tree is both a soliloquy and a player in the symphony of nature and life. We appreciate the cool shade and comforting breezes on hot summer days. We are enveloped in the spectacular display of yellow, reds and oranges in the fall. In the winter we are in awe at the beautiful symmetry and shapes of barren branches and trunks. In the spring our senses come alive as the sap rises, the buds sprout, and the trees flower with a promise of new life, a new season, hope, and a new opportunity for renewal.
Many of us appreciate the fact that our urban forest is also a wildlife nursery and habitat. In all seasons we are privileged to witness and experience the critical interactions of the trees, birds, small mammals such as squirrels, and a wide variety of beneficial local insects such as native butterflies and bees. The forest truly supports these creatures, providing food, shelter, and water. And the opposite is true. The wildlife are a part of the complex web of chemistry, physics, and biology that keep the forest habitat and regional and global ecology healthy.
Few of us are aware of just how important our urban forest and its ecology is to regional and global health. Buffalo is located on the eastern end of the Great Lakes. These lakes contain nearly one fifth of the fresh surface water on the planet. The habitats and wildlife that support the cleanliness and health of that water, are easily incredibly valuable resources. And yet few people, including planners and elected officials understand how biodiversity works and how important our region and our forest is to worldwide ecological and economic health.
Biodiversity supports ecological health by contributing to healthy soil, air, and water, helping to stabilize the climate, and creating a natural balance that helps all species to remain healthy. Biodiversity is the foundation of all quality of life issues. The biodiversity that is supported in our region, including our urban forest is consequential in that it promotes biodiversity. And, our area is widely recognized as a critical global environmental resource by scientists and conservationists.
For instance, the Niagara River Corridor, which Buffalo’s urban forest is a part of, has been designated as a “globally significant” Important Bird Area. You may be surprised to learn that we share that designation with such places as the Artic National Wildlife Reserve, the Everglades, and Yellowstone Park
The United Nations has designated portions of the nearby Niagara Escarpment, which transects the Niagara River and a “Biosphere Preserve”. Other Biosphere Preserves include the Galapagos Islands and the Hawaiian Islands National Marine Sanctuary.
You may be surprised to learn that the nearby Cattaraugus Creek watershed has been identified as the largest intact ecosystem in the eastern Great Lakes.
Often when we think of preserving the environment we think of such contexts as “saving the rainforest”, which is unquestionably an important strategy- but, we must also think about how we can save ourselves, by being better stewards of our local ecology, including our very critical urban forest.
And have no doubt, all of this is threatened. Threatened by urban, agricultural, and industrial contamination, and threatened by habitat loss, threatened by inappropriate urbanization, and threatened by inadequate stewardship of our urban forest. We can, and we must do better.
Ecological Benefits
Sometimes, some of us understand the direct economic ecological benefits of the urban forest. Tree lined streets, parking areas, and yards, help moderate the stifling heat that is created by urban pavement and buildings. On any hot summer day, go to an open parking lot, say at your local grocery store, and feel the withering heat that comes from beneath your feet, draws the sweat from your body and sucks your breath away. Then go to a treed area, a park for instance. There is a significant difference. In the direct sun, radiated by our urban jungle, our cars can overheat, and the cost of air conditioning in our buildings soar. The heat can put our lives at stake. Health care is expensive. The shade and the green space helps us keep our minds and bodies intact. Our urban forest is proactive healthcare.
In the winter, strategically placed trees such as evergreens can block the wind and help keep the needed heat in buildings that they protect with their insulating properties. This can keep heating costs down. To those of us that live here and pay those bills, that can mean a lot.
Urban forests do contribute to the wealth of a city. Well maintained green spaces including parks attract tourists, and benefit business that are located nearby. Beyond that, property values are affected by the urban forest. Generally speaking, property and homes near and or adjacent to parks and other green spaces are more valuable. This also means that the tax base increases.
What many do not appreciate is that the forest habitat is a complex and important ecosystem. A forest, even an urban forest, plays a very important role with its ecological services that translate into quantifiable savings.
An urban forest, and even a single tree, absorbs rainfall, stabilizes soil, and helps control erosion. This helps to reduce the impact of flooding which many of us have experienced in our basements during this recent storm. This absorption along with soil erosion prevention created by trees also helps to keep stormwater out of sewerage treatment system and reduces direct contamination of our waters during storms. Treatment of contaminated water, when it can be done, is very expensive.
It is important to recognize that Buffalo has lost much of its urban forest in recent decades. This is due to public policies reflecting both cost cuts and poor and uninformed planning decisions.
According to an American Forests sponsored report released in 2003 “Urban Ecosystem Analysis Buffalo-Lackawanna Area Erie County, New York”
That year, Buffalo had a total of 3,726 acres of tree canopy cover and 6,073 acres of impervious surfaces (pavement). This represents 12% tree canopy, and 23% impervious surface cover over the whole city. Now we have less tree cover. The national average for tree cover is 30%. We have less tree cover than most cities. That is astounding for the place once known as the City of Trees.
Even with almost twice the hard surface than tree cover, our urban forest still provides 17.7 million cubic feet of stormwater storage during an average storm – estimated by American Forests at an annual savings of $35.5 million. The American Forest study of Buffalo also calculates that our urban forest provides an air quality value of $825,799 annually.
That is just the tip of the iceberg. More and more, according to climate change predictions, we can expect unusual storms. This will include more heavy precipitation events, and more runoff issues like the October storm that we are now reeling from.
In addition, there are other economic benefits from a tree, and a forest.
According to the US Forest Service over a 50 year life span, a tree contributes:
$31,250 worth of oxygen
$62,900 worth of air pollution control
$37,500 worth of cleaned water
$31,250 worth of soil erosion control
This suggests that the quantifiable value of an average single tree over its lifetime is well over $150,000. Multiply that by 80,000-100,000 trees and you can begin to understand the value of the urban forest.
As we face what is arguably the greatest natural catastrophe in the history of our City there are a number of things that we need to consider. Plans need to be created and decisions should be made that are public and accountable. There are various estimates that about 90% of our urban forest has been damaged by the storm and of that, about 40% is lost. What can we do? Simply put, we must replant and restore.
Much of the current discussion centers on the hiring of an arborist or several arborists to manage this discussion and manage a restoration and replanting plan.
No question we need arborists. We need arborists to care for injured trees and to help us clean up. But this may not provide adequate solutions or restoration strategies that are as cost effective and as ecologically important as they can be. Hiring an arborist should just be a starting point.
Understanding what an arborist is, what an arborist does, is pretty fundamental. And yet, many misunderstand.
Arborists are essentially defined as “tree surgeons”. The expertise of arborists is fundamentally about individual tree health. Not forest health, and certainly not ecosystem health.
A “certified arborist”, (certified for instance by the International Society of Arborists),
is trained essentially in the knowledge and skills of pruning, trimming, and an approach to disease identification and treatment that is both complicated and from the perspective of an ecologist, insufficient.
For instance, most Certified arborists are trained in the use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers in order to treat disease and insect activities that sometimes, but not always, are harmful. In the past, in Buffalo, this has lead to problems, including the remarkable pesticide and economic debacle that visited the city of Buffalo in the mid 1990’s regarding the Elm Leaf Beetle. The proscribed treatments that were sold to the city were not cost effective and created health and aesthetic issues that were widely reported at the time. On a positive note, the environmental and economic calamity for the city that was corrected by an aggressive citizen based movement that refocused indiscriminate pesticide applications that for instance, harmed beneficial insect populations, toward a more reasonable least or non-toxic strategy. This included the creation of a city of Buffalo Pesticide Management Board that should be a part of the reforestation discussion. A least toxic strategy is now recognized by some arborist certifications, but this has to be spelled out in any agreement that involves the hiring arborists for Buffalo, especially any that are overseeing a larger program that involves habitat and ecology. Otherwise plan based activity will do harm.
Generally speaking, and there are exceptions, an arborist is trained in the planting and identification of horticultural species and varieties of trees including ornamental and what the industry calls “disease resistant” and “urban durable species”.
For instance, the city of Buffalo now has an arborist influenced “City of Buffalo Approved Tree list”. This approved tree list, passed as a law by the Buffalo Common Council, neglects an understanding of ecology, and all but makes the planting of native trees illegal. While I take the position that any tree is better than no tree, it is very important to know that native trees and shrubs are pretty important in the support of native biodiversity. Many species are very specific to the kinds of plants and trees that they require in order to survive. This should be a part of our urban forest mission statement. This habitat-centric knowledge is not part of our current discussion.
In the overall context of an urban forest, certified arborists generally do not have adequate training about ecosystems, impact and support of native habitats, and the beneficial value of biodiversity, and the specific biodiversity of our region.
This begs the question; does an arborist bring the right skills set and knowledge to run a program of urban reforestation for Buffalo?
In addition, it is important to understand whom we are hiring to do the work. The FEMA response context was both beneficial, and a disaster in its own right. We needed help, what we didn’t have was the time to organize and supervise the initial implementation adequately. I hope that the Mayor has leaned a lesson about disaster preparedness because chances are there are more to come. The result was a relatively quick clean-up of most streets in the city, but those contractors, called “hurricane chasers” early on by Mayor Brown, because they contract to follow disasters, left town with pockets full of loot, and in many instances, nearly clear cut streets, parks, and neighborhoods. They don’t have to live with their work, but we do.
Mayor Brown stated early on in this disaster that every tree that was coming down in this city would be “designated as “not savable” by an arborist”. My neighborhood was inundated with tree crews and they clear cut several blocks of lovely and beautiful mature trees, most, in my opinion, that did not need to be cut down. I approached several of the crews with my questions and asked one fellow who seemed to be at least tacitly in charge, “who is the arborist?” He looked at me, briefly flashing anger, and said pointing to the 15 or so chainsaw wielding folks engaged in cutting trees up and down my block “everyone out there with a chainsaw is an arborist”.
Appointing a Blue Ribbon Panel of Stakeholders
And so we move on. It is important to take an ecological and a scientific approach to reforesting Buffalo. We should endeavor to understand the quantifiable value of an ecosystem approach and the potential impact on the habitats and biodiversity that our area is so noted for.
The Mayor needs to appoint someone or several some ones to do this. Perhaps a Blue Ribbon Panel. This panel should organize an approach including a plan that links all efforts. Public participation as well as the inclusion of talent related to the City of Buffalo Environment Management Commission, The Pesticide Management Board, and conservation and environmental groups, including representatives from around the region need to be included. The Olmsted Parks conservancy needs to be included. The Common Council and the Planning Board need to be included. This needs to be a big and broad effort. This plan will need to be addressed by the State Environmental Quality Review Act. (SEQRA) This will help to provide public scrutiny and accountability. We do not need our cities reforesting plans made behind closed doors, at the behest of for instance, of the City of Buffalo Fiscal Stability Authority. The Mayor has already clearly stated that any and all economic decisions related to reforestation budgets will be made by this control board. This is not acceptable and they are not accountable. The plan needs to be accountable. The city needs to be. And although we don’t have to, we can move quickly.
One thing is for sure. How we deal with the clean up and restoration of our urban forest will help to characterize our community, and our ecological, economic, and social health for generations. It will take efforts from every one of us to make sure that we come out of this with a chance once again someday be a healthy and productive “city of trees”. Help give Buffalo and all of the disaster areas in our WNY and Southern Ontario communities a fighting chance to have a future that works.
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