EL CERRITO URBAN FOREST MANAGEMENT PLAN

An urban forest is a collection of trees growing within an urban area. An urban forest plan is an action plan for the standard of performance of the City’s trees and how to plan and manage the public trees within the City.

El Cerritio's Urban Forest Management Plan aims to:
1. Establish and maintain a citywide commitment to a healthy, growing urban forest in the City of El Cerrito.
2. Integrate the principles of the Urban Forest Management Plan into subsequent documents required by or in support of the City of El Cerrito General Plan.
3. Provide consistent funding for urban forestry efforts that reflects the importance of the urban forest to the public.
4. Provide excellent professional maintenance for the City’s urban forest.

The purpose of the plan is to build an extensive, healthy forest that provides the city with social, environmental and economic benefits.

• Social benefits include creating a sense of place, providing connections to the natural world, creating memorable nodes and entry points as well as facilitating a sense of community for a shared purpose and community building.
• Environmental benefits include mitigating impacts of the heat island effect, reducing airborne pollutants and sequestering carbon dioxide.
• Economic benefits include an increase in property values, in some cases up to 10%, attraction of business and shoppers and contribution to the financial standing of the city.

GOAL I: Establish and maintain a citywide commitment to a healthy, growing urban forest in the City of El Cerrito.

ACTION I-A: Create a part-time Urban Forestry Staff Position within the City of El Cerrito.

• The position would either be a new, part-time position or dedication of an existing position. This staff person would work within the City’s Public Works Department and hold an arborist’s certification. The responsibilities of the position would be to:
  • i. Manage, develop, and maintain the City’s urban forest.
  • ii. Coordinate with the Community Tree Committee public relations efforts.
  • iii. Coordinate with the City’s Planning Department to ensure enforcement of all tree related ordinances.

ACTION I-B: Create a Community Tree Committee.

• The Community Tree Committee is comprised of representatives from the city’s residents and businesses. The responsibilities of the Community Tree Committee are to:
  • i. Coordinate with the Urban Forestry Staff management and maintenance efforts.
  • ii. Promote and foster public awareness, education, interest and support for urban forestry efforts.
  • iii. Foster volunteer, grass-roots campaigns for tree planting and irrigation along the city’s streets and in residential front yards.
  • iv. Generate urban forestry funds from private sources to supplement City funding.
  • v. Interface with the Park and Recreation Commission on park trees.
  • vi. Educate El Cerrito citizens regarding selecting, planting, and maintaining trees.

ACTION I-C: Adopt and implement urban forestry ordinances and incorporate the requirements into the City’s Zoning/Municipal Code.

• i. Require street tree planting and maintenance as a condition of all development and renovation projects, including tree planting and staking, irrigation and maintenance.
  • a. Require a minimum of 50anopy cover at maturity in new and renovated parking lots.
  • b. Require selection of tree species from the City’s approved tree list and in accordance with the Urban Forest Management Plan guidelines.
  • c. Require the installation of automatic, regular irrigation in all planting areas.
  • d. Require the installation of structural soil around planting areas located in hardscape areas.
  • e. Require permanent maintenance by commercial developers and at least a 1- year maintenance period for street trees by residential developers
  • Maintenance includes pest control, pruning and fertilization.
• ii. Develop and adopt a heritage tree ordinance or policy.

GOAL II: Integrate the principles of the Urban Forest Management Plan into subsequent documents required by or in support of the City of El Cerrito General Plan.

ACTION II-A: Implement urban forest design principles to establish and reinforce a strong the community-wide visual character.

• i. Accent gateways or entry points with signature trees and associated landscaping in order to define and highlight city edges. A signature tree is dramatic and should differentiate the area from its surroundings. The tree may be a small stature flowering, a tree with distinctive colored foliage or be columnar.
• ii. Develop nodes at major intersections or city activity centers to create a rhythm of special areas highlighted with signature trees. Again, the signature tree may be flowering, have colored foliage or be columnar and may be the same or a different variety as the gateway signature tree.
• iii. Articulate the hierarchy of streets to provide legibility and continuity throughout the city. On arterial streets, use tall columnar or vase shaped species along street frontages and broad species in large medians. Use smaller stature trees in residential areas and areas where maintenance of views is of importance. The Urban Forest staff, together with the Community Tree Committee may establish distinctive design guidelines and associated tree species lists for each street type, district, gateway and node type.
• iv. Maintain age and species diversity through out by creating an alternating tree species, patterns of tree species and planting rotation of new tree or replacement planting. When a large area is being planted at once, select tree species with varied growth rates to insure age diversity over the life of the project.

ACTION II-B: Adopt and implement an urban forest development strategy for achieving a successful urban forest.

• i. Combine and input the data contained within the Landscape Management Plan and the Street Tree Inventory into an urban forest software / urban forest database.
• ii. Continuously log associated maintenance and tree planting activities.
• iii. Update recommended tree species list on a biannual basis to include improved species and to eliminate species with new pest or disease issues.
• iv. Use the urban forest software to track changes in forest health and composition, to evaluate the effectiveness of urban forestry efforts; and to project budget requirements
• v. Quantify the economic and social benefits of the urban forest as a means of generating support for urban forestry

GOAL III: Provide consistent funding for urban forestry effort that reflects the importance of the urban forest to the public.

ACTION III-A: Provide the urban forestry effort with an adequate budget. Budget allocation will shift as the urban forestry effort matures. Initially, greater weight is to be placed on planning and public relations efforts and the removal and replacement of dead and declining trees. As the urban forestry program matures and becomes ingrained in the community identity and a strong forest base is established, the emphasis will shift to ongoing maintenance and development.

• i. Create a financial report that identifies all the costs associated with the Urban Forest Management Plan elements.
• ii. Perform annual analysis of expenditure trends and incorporate into 10-year planning efforts for operations and capital improvements.
• iii. Report annual urban forest expenditures to the Community Tree Committee, the Park & Recreation Commission, and the City Council

ACTION III-B: Encourage the Community Tree Committee to be responsible for obtaining additional funding from grants, donations, and volunteer effort to augment the urban forest effort and fund special projects.

GOAL IV: Provide excellent professional maintenance for the City’s urban forest.

ACTION IV-A: Provide a comprehensive training program and standardized procedures for City tree-workers and community tree-care volunteers.

ACTION IV-B: Require inspection of tree plantings associated with development to ensure compliance with urban forestry ordinances.

ACTION IV-C: Provide regular professional pruning for all urban forest trees.

ACTION IV-D: Provide or ensure regular and sufficient irrigation for all urban forest trees.

ACTION IV-E: Adopt and implement an integrated pest management program for tree pests and diseases.

ACTION IV-F: Maintain age and species diversity through out the urban forest.

On May 7, 2007, the City Council adopted the El Cerrito Urban Forest Management Plan and appropriated $30,000 from the General Fund to implement a tree planting initiative.

Download the presentation regarding the Urban Forest Management Plan(PDF, 196 KB)

Download the Urban Forest Management Plan (PDF, 8.83 MB)