Kerry Gray, principal consultant for urban forestry at Davey Resource Group is joined with Omar Leon, urban forester for the City of Miami Beach to discuss what urban forestry is, why urban forestry is important and what you can do to help urban foresters reach their goal.
In this episode we cover:
To find your local Davey office, check out our find a local office page to search by zip code.
To learn more about urban forestry at Davey, check out our Urban Forestry Resources.
To learn more about other projects Davey Resource Group does, head to the DRG webpage.
Connect with Davey Tree on social media:
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Have topics you'd like us to cover on the podcast? Email us at podcasts@davey.com. We want to hear from you!
Kerry Gray, principal consultant for urban forestry at Davey Resource Group is joined with Omar Leon, urban forester for the City of Miami Beach to discuss what urban forestry is, why urban forestry is important and what you can do to help urban foresters reach their goal.
In this episode we cover:
To find your local Davey office, check out our find a local office page to search by zip code.
To learn more about urban forestry at Davey, check out our Urban Forestry Resources.
To learn more about other projects Davey Resource Group does, head to the DRG webpage.
Connect with Davey Tree on social media:
Twitter: @DaveyTree
Facebook: @DaveyTree
Instagram: @daveytree
YouTube: The Davey Tree Expert Company
LinkedIn: The Davey Tree Expert Company
Have topics you'd like us to cover on the podcast? Email us at podcasts@davey.com. We want to hear from you!
Doug Oster: Welcome to the Davey Tree Expert Company’s podcast Talking Trees. I'm your host, Doug Oster. Each episode showcases one of Davey’s certified arborist sharing advice with everyone about caring for your trees and landscapes. We'll talk about everything from introduced pest, seasonal tree care, deer damage, how to make your trees thrive, and much, much more.
Tune in every Thursday to learn more because here at the Talking Trees podcast, we know trees are the answer. Well, this week on the Talking Trees podcast, we have a first two guests. Yes, two guests for the price of one. Kerry Gray is the Principal Consultant for Urban Forestry for the Davey Resource Group, and Omar Leon, Urban Forester from the city of Miami Beach. We're going to talk all about urban forests. Kerry, Omar, how are you guys doing?
Kerry Gray: Great. Thanks, Doug.
Omar Leon: Doing good.
Doug: Let's talk a little bit about why you're both on together. What are you guys working on together?
Kerry: We actually just completed an Urban Forestry Master Plan with the city of Miami Beach. I know that when most people think about trees in urban forestry, Miami Beach is not something that really comes to mind, but Miami Beach is really progressive in terms of looking at trees and using trees as climate mitigation strategies for them.
Doug: Omar, what does that mean for you? As Kerry said, we don't think of urban forestry when we think of Miami Beach?
Omar: I believe urban forestry throughout the nation is very interesting, and we have a lot of unique urban forests throughout the country. City of Miami Beach is no exception. We have a very unique maritime urban forest, very urbanized city, a lot of tourism, a lot of growth. It's a challenging place to manage this tree canopy and be able to create this resilient, sustainable tree canopy that everyone is trying to achieve. The city itself is, as Kerry mentioned, taking many steps to adapt to sea-level rise and climate change.
Our trees are no exception. We're looking at how to better manage our trees, how to grow our tree canopy in a healthy, sustainable manner, and how to expand our urban tree canopy for future generations. We're looking at innovative ways of planting trees, of protecting trees, and introducing new species to the area that would be able to be resilient to future changes that we see in the next 30, 40 years.
Doug: Kerry, tell me a little bit about your role in this. Looking at it, from the point perspective from the north, where I'm from, all I think about is palm trees when I think of Miami Beach, and I know that's not what you want to hear. From living up here, that's all I think about, is palm trees for Miami Beach, but there's so much more that has to be done down there. There has to be a diversity of trees, right?
Kerry: Yes. We've been working and worked with the city of Miami Beach to really help them identify ways that they could use tree canopy, and help, like Omar said, grow their tree canopy cover so that they can be used as a climate mitigation strategies. As Omar mentioned, Miami Beach is already experiencing effects of climate change, but most of the country is as well in terms of having higher temperatures in the summertime, dealing with extreme weather events, and things like that.
Trees can really be a solution to help us mitigate some of those effects of climate change. We're working with Miami Beach, not only to identify other areas that they might be able to add canopy trees while still having the iconic palm trees of Miami Beach, really being able to utilize trees as really an asset to the community, but really integrating more tree canopy within Miami Beach while still obviously having the iconic palm trees that make Miami Beach Miami Beach.
Doug: For that area, and this question goes to both of you, what kind of trees can be used down there?
Omar: It's interesting because-- and you’re right, palms are an iconic part of Miami Beach. One of the things that we've discovered with the analysis that were conducted through the Urban Forestry Master Plan is the fact that almost 57% of our public tree canopy is made up of palms, which are all within the same family, essentially the Arecaceae family. When you're trying to follow the 10%, 20%, 30% rule of sustainable urban forestry management, you need to understand that palms also fall into that category, and to have a properly managed urban tree canopy, you need to have that within a reasonable number.
What we're looking at in the plan itself is how to improve tree canopy coverage through the use of shade trees. I think the overall arching goal is to have a system that's benefiting its community more, improving stormwater management capacities, improving shade, reducing urban heat and effects throughout the city. Over time, we will see those changes gradually take place, and the creation of a more livable community within the city.
Doug: Omar, if I could just back up a little bit in the formula that you talked about there those numbers, could you break that down for me, please?
Omar: The 10%, 20%, 30% rule of urban forestry?
Doug: Yes.
Omar: Essentially, sustainable urban forestry management states that to have a sustainable urban tree canopy, you don't want to have more than 10% of a species, 20% of a genius, 30% of a family. Once you surpass that, and I'm pretty sure this is happening in some other parts of the country with different tree dynamics, once you pass that, you tend to get into territory, which makes it more challenging to manage a tree canopy effectively. You get pests, disease, other uncontrolled circumstances, they can have a negative effect on your tree canopy.
Kerry: Hey, Doug, I want to back up a little bit, because we didn't really define what an urban forest was. I think for most people, when they hear the words urban forestry or urban forest, it seems like an oxymoron to them, like, "What are we talking about?" What we talk about is the trees all around us. Those trees that are in our backyards or that are in our parks, that are growing along our streets. For us, that makes up the urban forest in our community. That's really what Omar and I both work on managing.
We want to really encourage not only communities but also people who live in communities to really help manage and grow our urban forest so that we have this great urban tree canopy that's going to help us with so many different benefits that trees provide. Like we said, shading is a big one, obviously, for Miami Beach, it's really big. For a lot of communities, trees properly placed around homes can reduce our energy costs, which is great.
They can, like Omar mentioned, can help with flooding and absorbing some of that stormwater and rainwater that comes. They really provide so many benefits. What Omar and I both do in different kinds of ways, is really working with communities and helping our communities to better manage, though, as in making sure that people understand all the benefits that trees provide, and what an important asset they are to our communities.
Doug: Is there any resistance because when I think of adding trees to the city, that sounds like a positive all the way around for me. How do you make it happen, I guess, is the question?
Omar: That's one of the challenges in the field of urban forestry. I always say everybody loves a tree until you get one planted in your front yard or in your right-of-way. I think a lot of it has to do with education, educating the public, communication with the public, explaining to folks the benefit of these trees and the overall arching benefits of the community. Trees, in essence, they do have aesthetic value to it.
Of course, we look at the social and economic value of trees, but trees are vital part of our city's infrastructure system. Without them there, we tend to get into a situation there where some of our great infrastructure systems can be overworked, overwhelmed, and cause greater issues. It's important to have this viable system, healthy, and working simultaneously with other infrastructure systems to help create that livable community.
Doug: Let me ask you a little bit about the feel good of doing a job like this. I guess this goes to both of you. I understand there's got to be frustrations with navigating all this, but there has to be a feel good to thinking like, "Okay, I'm working on something that's going to help our environment." Tell me about how that feels.
Kerry: I love it. For me, it feels great because we know that saying of, when's the best time to plant a tree? 20 years ago. When's the second-best time? Today. Oman and I are working on for the future generations are going to be able to help have a canopy in the urban forest that we're helping to plan today. I think it's a great feeling to be able to be part of an industry that's really helping to improve our environment and trying to find ways that we both can engage with the community and engage with residents to help them understand the role that they also play within their community.
Omar: Yes. I think it's a very satisfying position to be put in. I think throughout my career, I've been in different aspects of this green industry. Now that I'm in this role as I've been forester, that long-term planning communication with the community, in the neighborhood residents, elected officials, I think it's a great place to be in, and working together with different agencies and different departments to create this vision that everyone is trying to achieve.
Doug: Speaking specifically of Miami Beach, how big is this plan? How many trees are we talking about eventually?
Kerry: The plan that we developed was really as a visioning document to help Miami Beach identify ways that they can add more canopy cover. The current canopy cover in Miami Beach is 17%. Is that correct, Omar? I believe.
Omar: That's correct. Yes.
Kerry: Then we recommended that they have a goal of reaching 22% canopy cover. Miami Beach is, as Omar mentioned, is very built-up. There's not a lot of options in some of those built-up environments for tree canopy, but when they do new projects, this plan is really a visioning document to help them really consider trees within all of their efforts that the city does.
When engineering doesn't build a new road, or they have to do bike lanes or doing some infrastructure projects that trees are considered as part of that, and they are another asset that's added to those projects. Then also working with the community to help them understand areas where they might be able to plant a shade tree in their yard instead of maybe planting a palm tree or some other, or taking out a tree entirely.
Doug: How is 22%? How does that rank when you're thinking urban forest? Is that a great thing or would it be better to be-- I know it'd be better to be higher, but how does that fit in?
Omar: It's one of those interesting things, and just to roll back on what Kerry is mentioning, couple of things. The plan is a guiding document and it's going to help future development throughout the city. However, the city itself, one of the outcomes of the plant itself is that we actually have a project right now, a general obligation bond project where we are currently planting 5,000 trees citywide.
When you look at the size of Miami Beach, it's not a large as far as footprint goes, it's not a large city. This project overtime, over the next six to seven years, we will be planting 5,000 trees within the city parks, right-of-ways, and green spaces. In addition to that, we have to understand then that really 20% of the urban forest is on public property. The other 80% is on private property.
We have to look at how to guide development on private property, how to preserve and protect trees on private property, and discovering or initiating new initiatives that help improve planting of trees on private property as well. Without that multi-tiered collaborative effort, we will not be able to reach that 22% effectively. It takes a lot of work. It's not just one agency or one row, it's a multi-tier collaborative effort. I'm pretty sure a lot of folks listening to the podcast itself, 17% is not that high of a number.
That's one of the things that we're looking at is not just the percent canopy coverage, but how to maximize the benefit of what you have. If you have limited space to plant trees to begin with, then there should be more effort in creating foundational infrastructure to help improve tree canopy growth and tree canopy health over time so that you maximize the area that you have to be able to essentially sustain a more suitable tree for that location.
Doug: What kind of advice would you guys give in general to just a regular homeowner, what they can do to help in urban forestry?
Kerry: Oh, I have so much advice. Obviously, planting trees in your yard, but also not only planting, but caring for those trees, especially when they're young is really important. Obviously, watering newly planted trees for the first couple years. A couple of years after they're in the ground start pruning them. The younger you start pruning the trees, the less work you'll have to do in pruning those trees later in their life. Yes, as trees get older, then you can have International Society of Arboriculture certified arborists come out and evaluate your trees and identify any needs and care that those trees might need as they get larger.
In terms of the trees in your community, so helping to support the programs that are happening in your community. Understanding that urban forestry programs like Omar's in Miami Beach need resources in order to better care for manage and plant trees. Helping to support those programs within your communities. There's volunteer programs where you can learn and participate in activities within your community around tree planting and tree care. Getting involved in those. There's just a variety of things that community members can do and residents can do around their trees.
Doug: Omar, why is this job right for you?
Omar: It sounds like a job interview question there?
Doug: Where do you see yourself in five years?
Omar: [laughs] It's interesting, that's a good question. In my experience in this industry, one of the things that I think I've discovered amongst myself is that I love to talk and I love to talk to the community and I love to be part of the community. I do have a lot of respect and a lot of passion for the city I work for and where I live. I think one of the most difficult aspects of urban forestry for most folks that get into this industry is that there's that disconnect with wanting to engage the community because most people that get into this industry they're not real social folks. They don't want to socialize with folks. They don't want to go into the forest.
They don't want to go into the woods and which I love to do. You know what I mean? I love to do this all the time. I think that one of the things that makes me the right person for this type of work is that I love to engage the community. I love to reach out to folks and get their thoughts. I'm an open book. I'm an open-minded. I love hearing these ideas that folks bring into our realm all the time. Sometimes the best ideas I've ever come across come from the folks that you least expected. They really do look at things in different ways and that's a very interesting part of this role, so yes.
Doug: You're hired.
Omar: Thank you.
Doug: Kerry, how did you find your way to tree?
Kerry: Interestingly enough, I worked at a Nursery and Garden Centre when I was in high school. From there, I just loved trees, and I loved being outside. Urban forestry is great for me, married the things I like. I love working with people and I love hearing what they have to say, and I love trees. It was a great thing for me to marry those two things, because traditional forestry being in the woods by myself wasn't necessarily something that I needed. I like the social aspects, so urban forestry was perfect for me.
Doug: Well, Kerry and Omar, you are both inspiring, that's for sure. The work you're doing is absolutely wonderful. I'm going to leave it right there. I want to thank you very much for your time and what you're doing to help the planet.
Kerry: Thanks so much, Doug, appreciate the opportunity.
Omar: Yes. I really do appreciate the time given to talk to you guys and I hope to come on board one day again and talk some more. I'm always open to Talking Trees.
Doug: Tune in every Thursday to the Talking Trees podcast from the Davey Tree Expert Company. I'm your host, Doug Oster. Next week, we're talking all about native trees, including one that might surprise you called a pawpaw. The fruit is often described as a cross between a mango and a banana, and I love them served this same way. George Washington ate his. Tune in and find out all about it. As always, we like to remind you on the Talking Trees Podcast, trees are the answer.
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