The Community Forest

The Nebraska Forest Service Author

03/06/2020 Added

320 Plays

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A community forest offers many benefits to the entire community. It's an investment that pays dividends for decades, and we can all contribute to it.

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[00:00:00.992](gentle music)
[00:00:06.780]Community forestry is really about all the plants
[00:00:10.410]and trees that grow in an environment where people live.
[00:00:14.520]So it could be a small town,
[00:00:16.710]it could be a large city.
[00:00:18.970]Really, it's about managing that living green infrastructure
[00:00:22.440]for the betterment of all of the people that live there.
[00:00:25.460]As an educator, I get really excited
[00:00:27.380]about community forestry as I teach students
[00:00:29.700]and work with communities, because every time
[00:00:31.970]they discover something unique about trees,
[00:00:34.690]you just see this sort of inspirational light
[00:00:37.240]go on in people's eyes.
[00:00:38.840]As well as all the scientific benefits,
[00:00:40.850]there's this joy that you get
[00:00:42.380]just from being around and experiencing trees.
[00:00:45.890]Community forest is a combination of trees
[00:00:49.610]and I know that sounds simplistic
[00:00:51.300]but we all aspire to plant a tree at a time.
[00:00:54.520]But I think the value of the community forest
[00:00:56.560]and the way it's defined is the notion
[00:00:58.590]that all these trees work together and together
[00:01:00.560]they're worth more than any one tree individually,
[00:01:03.330]whether its habitat value, whether it's the fact
[00:01:05.250]that they typically grow in a community in nature,
[00:01:07.780]and actually kind of depend on each other to be successful.
[00:01:11.290]There's so much research that shows
[00:01:13.400]how much this kind of resource pays back over time.
[00:01:17.390]And everybody finds value in the community forest.
[00:01:20.380]For you it might be dollars and cents
[00:01:22.080]given it's such a huge payback in terms of investment.
[00:01:25.560]For another person it might be climate change
[00:01:27.560]in the context of the fact that we have a carbon sink here.
[00:01:30.890]And then for others it might be the quality of life
[00:01:33.190]and the fact that that's gonna enhance
[00:01:34.310]our economy over time.
[00:01:36.990]The importance of trees in our communities
[00:01:38.920]really can't be overstated.
[00:01:41.170]They help cool our houses, they help filter
[00:01:43.610]some of the pollution out of the air.
[00:01:45.750]They help give us something beautiful to look at.
[00:01:48.720]It also can help provide wildlife habitat.
[00:01:52.320]The birds that we like to see, some of the insects,
[00:01:54.460]the pollinators that we like to see
[00:01:55.780]do actually use trees in our environment.
[00:01:58.930]Land values go up, a tree in your front yard
[00:02:02.660]escalates the value of your home in terms of curb appeal.
[00:02:06.360]It's been shown if you have trees along an urban streetscape
[00:02:09.920]that the businesses actually are more profitable
[00:02:12.740]because people want to spend time outside those businesses
[00:02:15.520]and there's more opportunity to go in the business
[00:02:17.240]and spend some money.
[00:02:18.440]A really important value of the community forest
[00:02:22.110]correlates to ecosystem services.
[00:02:24.380]In literally one tree, we've been able to figure out
[00:02:27.100]the stormwater management value.
[00:02:28.890]We know we can stand under a big tree in a rainstorm
[00:02:30.870]and not get wet right away.
[00:02:32.190]That equals a benefit for the city
[00:02:33.810]in terms of how they manage stormwater.
[00:02:36.890]So the bigger picture benefits for our trees
[00:02:39.880]in our community is really we look at this
[00:02:42.150]as canopy cover.
[00:02:43.210]If you look down at a city and you see
[00:02:45.270]that there are lots of trees
[00:02:46.930]covering up our buildings and our cement,
[00:02:48.810]it actually reduces the heat that is generated in our cities
[00:02:52.390]as the sun hits these hardscape pavements.
[00:02:54.910]And that really helps our whole community
[00:02:57.870]function better and reduce costs for everybody.
[00:03:02.080]There's a context for incredible value
[00:03:04.650]that we now have enough research on
[00:03:06.600]to say we know this works and we can quantify it.
[00:03:09.930]The more you know about the value of trees
[00:03:11.657]and the more you can share that with others,
[00:03:14.390]I think the more we realize it's an investment, not a cost.
[00:03:18.530]There's a lot of science that tells us
[00:03:19.870]trees are very beneficial, and we can look at numbers
[00:03:23.000]but there's also the way trees make us feel personally.
[00:03:25.930]A lot of us have a sort of history with trees
[00:03:28.700]where we climbed a tree when we were younger
[00:03:30.540]or we planted a tree with someone.
[00:03:33.070]And so trees really can inspire us in an emotional way.
[00:03:36.080]And if we think about it
[00:03:37.640]as trees being this sort of awe-inspiring organism,
[00:03:40.570]they're capable of living hundreds,
[00:03:42.080]sometimes thousands of years
[00:03:43.570]and growing up to hundreds of feet tall.
[00:03:46.350]And so it's really an inspiring thing
[00:03:48.170]to think that this thing we might plant
[00:03:50.260]could outlive us by decades or sometimes even centuries.
[00:03:55.750]People can be good stewards of the community forest.
[00:03:58.680]I think initially just by planting trees.
[00:04:02.210]We owe future generations
[00:04:03.660]what the past generations have provided us.
[00:04:06.440]There's a famous quote that, "Even if I knew
[00:04:08.957]"the world were to end tomorrow,
[00:04:10.837]"I would still plant a tree today."
[00:04:12.850]Context of that connection to humanity
[00:04:16.250]and the investment and payback
[00:04:18.150]of what others have done for us I think is important.
[00:04:22.870]It's called a community forest for a reason.
[00:04:25.220]It's there for the whole community to serve all of us
[00:04:28.010]and we are there to serve it as well.
[00:04:30.530]So get outside today and support your community forest.
[00:04:34.150]You can do that by planting a tree,
[00:04:36.980]by connecting with your community tree board,
[00:04:39.690]by participating in a volunteer or service project
[00:04:43.260]or just by telling people why trees are so important.
[00:04:47.870]If you'd like to learn more
[00:04:49.280]about how you can support your community forest,
[00:04:51.790]visit the Nebraska Forest Service today at nfs.unl.edu.
[00:04:59.030]Every day when we experience the glory
[00:05:01.690]that trees provide us, we experienced the legacy
[00:05:04.910]that people left hundreds of years ago.
[00:05:07.340]And you can leave a legacy today
[00:05:09.060]by getting outside and planting a tree.
[00:05:14.231](birds chirping)

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The Community Forest

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