Big Cities Forced to Prune Their Tree Programs

Buffeted by the economic downturn and competition for scarce tax dollars, urban tree programs in large cities are falling to the budget ax, a survey by the American Forestry Assn. has found.

The fiscal crisis has forced cities from Los Angeles to New York to trim tree maintenance and planting programs, in some cases eliminating them.

Fifteen of the 20 large cities surveyed do not routinely check the condition of their trees. In Los Angeles, a 37% budget cut will mean that each of the city’s 680,000 trees will get a maintenance visit once every 15 years instead of every six. The city’s 273-member street tree work force has been cut by 60 positions.

Other cities often only manage to remove dead or dying trees that pose a hazard to life and property.

“We’re seeing entire cities being forced into a crisis management mode on these trees,” said Neil Sampson, executive vice president of the American Forestry Assn. “They’ve turned from a health-care unit into a coroner’s unit for urban trees.”

The dismal assessment of urban tree programs comes at a time when there is growing recognition of the economic and environmental benefits of healthy urban forest programs.

Trees are credited with reducing energy bills by providing shade, purifying dirty urban air, providing habitat for birds and other animals and even combatting global warming by absorbing and storing carbon dioxide, the principal greenhouse gas.

The fiscal plight of city and county tree programs and how to enlist private citizens and businesses to bridge the gap will be a major topic today as the fifth annual National Urban Forest Conference opens at the Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.

The weeklong conference is expected to draw 800 scientists, citizen activists, professional foresters and representatives of business and government from 11 nations.

The 20-city survey, to be formally released at a news conference today, found that most cities are removing more trees than they are planting.

Despite the fiscal crunch, Los Angeles continues to replace dying or diseased trees, and builders of residential subdivisions and commercial builders are required to plant new trees.

“We do not have a stagnant urban forest by any stretch of the imagination,” said Bob Kennedy, superintendent of the Los Angeles street tree division.

But Los Angeles’ ongoing tree inventory has ground to a halt halfway through the count because of a $500,000 budget cut. Such inventories are essential to spotting which trees need removal or care.