Considering the Urban Tree: Growing the Life between the Buildings

Abstract Urbanization has spawned the Urban Forest, an ecosystem characterized by the presence of trees and related flora, funga and fauna, the soils and landscapes they populate and the air and water resource they coexist with, all in a dynamic association with people and their human settlements. All our urban trees originate in a forest somewhere in the world. The challenges of integrating urban-tolerant forest trees within the context of human settlements generated Urban Forestry, melding a forest ecology foundation and an interdisciplinary expression of science, art and practice with the highly knowledgeable, creative development, implementation and enforcement of an Urban Forest Management Plan. Sustainable forest tree management in a non-forest context requires an understanding of trees’ genetic capacities and self-management strategies. To enable those capacities and provide an ecologically sustainable environment in the urban spaces and places we are asking these forest trees to exist, self-management strategies must form the basis for our planning and management approach. As urbanization expands, ecologically based planning and management are paramount. Rather than thinking planting, we need to think growing. Rather than trunk or branches or roots, the focus must be the entirety. This essay advocates consideration of the tree, turning the science and art of the Urban Forestry practice into innovative planning and management strategies that grow urban trees well into maturity – enhancing their ability to contribute to a healthy, sustainable urban ecosystem for all its occupants.