Water and the Urban Forest

Nichole Baker, the City's water conservation staffer, pointed me to this item (short PDF) from the Panhandle Lakes Resource Conservation and Development Council:

In the first attempt of its kind in Idaho, IDL (in cooperation with local governments) has applied for a grant from the US Forest Service to develop and implement a GIS analysis, using CityGreen software and high-resolution satellite imagery of tree canopy to address stormwater mitigation and water conservation and quality in both developed and rapidly developing areas of Kootenai County, Idaho, an area of approximately 100 square miles.

And Bill Belknap reports that Moscow's Tree Commission is "working on a similar study and model for the City of Moscow. The have a group of Americorps volunteers that will be working on updating the City’s TreeWorks GIS public tree inventory system and then integrating it with the CityGreen to model and quantify the environmental and economic benefits of the urban/community forest. It appears that they may have their findings back in time to incorporate within the Comprehensive Plan revision."

Being a fan of the urban forest for its beautiful lumber and the trees for their carbon sequestration value, I'm interested to hear that serious effort is going into understanding their role in watershed management. I hope this information moves forward fast enough to provide guidance to the new comprehensive planning effort.

Paradise Path Spring Planting Day 3/29/08

an email from Roger Blanchard

Saturday, March 29th
8:00 – 11:00 a.m.

Volunteers will be planting 33 hackberry trees along the path between Blaine Street and the east city limits

Parking is available at the east city limits just west of Carmichael Road
or walk or bike

There will be shovels available, but feel free to bring your own tools if you like

Refreshments will be provided


Roger Blanchard

Parks & Facilities Manager

City of Moscow

Tree Moscow

Last April (2007) Tom Lamar, Amy Grey and I talked about an effort to increase tree planting in Moscow.

We had three different, but potentially overlapping interests in this activity. Tom through PCEI along the lines of habitat restoration, esp along creeks and wetlands, Amy, through Backyard Harvest for planting of fruit trees. My goal was driven by my response to Inconvenient Truth, a desire to contribute to carbon sequestration by planting large growing, long lived, and self-propagating trees in places where they have a chance of spreading.

Amy designed a logo but we never got the project launched. Working with Roger Blanchard and the PPTF, Karina and I planted planted and tended trees east of Blaine last spring and again this year. This year, I'm putting out an oak that is reproducing itself in the Travois linear park, seedlings from a sycamore maple that has grown in my yard since before 1926 (and spreads well where I don't want it), and a delicious pie cherry that sends up suckers in the yard if I don't mow it. All these are going along the path east of Blaine.