Preparing our Urban Forests for our Changing Climate

There’s no doubt that the climate is changing rapidly, at a pace that is both undeniable and faster than previously projected. Our changing climate will impact ecosystems, including urban forests, in ways that will vary, but the Urban Forest Initiative (UFI) seeks to develop climate adaptation plans for the trees on UK campus and the Arboretum to mediate those changes!

Their project, Preparing our Urban Forests for our Changing Climate, calls for shifting the lens through which we conduct urban forest management so that selection of tree species in future tree planting and subsequent tree maintenance decisions incorporate knowledge of species- and location-specific climate vulnerability applied to forest management goals.

By conducting separate projects on the UK main campus and the Arboretum, they will highlight site-specific differences in management goals for different areas, despite similar overall climate change impacts.

This project was funded by the Sustainability Challenge Grant, a collaborative effort between the President’s Sustainability Advisory Committee, the Tracy Farmer Institute for Sustainability and the Environment, and the Office of Sustainability, and the Student Sustainability Council.

Student interns worked on the Arboretum component of the project throughout the summer of 2020, inventorying every tree and shrub (about 3,000!) in the Walk Across Kentucky collection of The Arboretum, State Botanical Garden of Kentucky as well as inventorying several neighborhoods in Lexington of varying socioeconomic status. They’ve been able to collect baseline data for tree health, size, species composition, and climate vulnerability that will allow them to help guide climate informed management of The Arboretum, State Botanical Garden of Kentucky, LFUCG neighborhoods, and UK Campus.

“I have always envisioned UFI as a vehicle for change. Helping to make the science of climate change palatable and relatable to a larger audience by linking it to the trees where we live, and to lead people to plant and care for trees in urban ecosystems.”

Mary Arthur, Professor of Forest Ecology

Moving forward, UFI hopes to pilot a similar project for the Lexington public tree canopy, having already surveyed around 8,000 public trees. Leading by example and through outreach, Preparing our Urban Forests for our Changing Climate is supporting Lexington communities by creating a roadmap for maintaining and building our tree canopy in the face of rapidly changing climate.

“This project inspires me because it engages powerful groups in powerful issues and seeks to facilitate and think through meaningful change,” says Claire Hilbrecht, UFI’s intern through the Sustainability Internship Program.

UFI has also collaborated with expertise from within UK as well as the surrounding Bluegrass Region to produce projects such as Tree Week, the UK Tree Advisory Committee, and the Urban and Community Forestry Undergraduate Certificate.