Trees provide many benefits for people living in cities, from offering respite from extreme heat to supporting mental health. But did you know that approximately 50% of trees in a typical urban planting effort will not live beyond 15 years? This begs the question: How can landscape architects and urban foresters ensure the long-term success of planting programs?
In a recent study, Theodore Eisenman, an associate professor at the UMass Amherst Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning, and Lara Roman, a research ecologist in the U.S. Forest Service’s Pacific Southwest Research Station, teamed up to aggregate existing research on urban forests into a set of best practices for planting initiatives moving forward. The study was featured in a new article, "What City Trees Need Now," by Timothy A. Schuler in the February edition of Landscape Architecture Magazine. UMass Amherst students and faculty can access the article through UMass Libraries eJournals.
Eisenman and Roman's study, "Beyond the Golden Shovel: Recommendations for a Successful Urban Tree Planting Initiative," (May 2024) was published in the Journal of American Planning Association: doi.org/10.1080/01944363.2024.2330943.