By Elton Rogers, Milwaukee Area Technical College and Dan Buckler, DNR Urban Forest Assessment Specialist, Milwaukee, Daniel.Buckler@wisconsin.gov or 608-445-4578

An urban forest is not an island. Trees and maintenance practices in one community inevitably affect the environment in another, while pests, pathogens and other damage agents don’t respect political boundaries. Because of these shared experiences, researchers have partnered with the Wisconsin DNR to assess the current state of publicly managed trees across the Milwaukee Metropolitan Area. Inventories from 40 organizations (mostly municipalities) totaling almost 440,000 trees point to worrying diversity issues and vulnerability to climate change, but also positive planting trends.

An article in the September issue of Arboriculture & Urban Forestry, the research publication of the International Society of Arboriculture, reviews the Milwaukee area’s species diversity, resilience to climate projections, availability of planting sites and more. A high-level summary of those results is below.

Continue reading “The Good, The Bad And The Ugly: The Current State Of Public Trees In Southeastern Wisconsin” →

By Dan Buckler, DNR Urban Forest Assessment Specialist, Milwaukee, Daniel.Buckler@wisconsin.gov or 608-445-4578 

Ever since it launched in 2017, the Wisconsin Community Tree Map has been building a collective inventory of urban trees across the state. Now a milestone has been passed: over one million trees are in the database, giving users an expansive look at much of our urban forest.

Visitors to the tree map, a compilation of tree inventories from over 200 organizations, can use the tool to learn more about their local trees, such as species composition, size distribution, or even some of the ecosystem services those trees provide. Users can filter by certain attributes or areas to further identify trees of interest. Overall, it can be a powerful management, scientific, marketing and educational tool.

Continue reading “One Million Trees Now In Wisconsin Community Tree Map” →

By Dan Buckler, DNR Urban Forest Assessment Specialist, Milwaukee, Daniel.Buckler@wisconsin.gov or 608-445-4578

Tree inventories are foundational elements of sustainable urban forestry programs. You need to know what you have to best manage your trees. Because of the importance of these datasets, the Wisconsin DNR Urban Forestry program often funds inventories through their annual grants (open now through Oct. 2).

For the last few years, the program has required grant recipients that pursue inventories to collect a minimum baseline of attributes. These attributes ensure that the inventory is both useful to the organization and can be compiled into the Wisconsin Community Tree Map, a collection of tree inventories from around the state.

Continue reading “Updated Tree Inventory Requirements” →

Dan Buckler, Urban Forestry Assessment Specialist, Daniel.Buckler@wisconsin.gov

Trees are sometimes called the lungs of the Earth. You might also call them and the neighborly Lake Michigan the air conditioners of Milwaukee.

A preview of the Milwaukee Heat Map

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources helped coordinate a heat mapping campaign in the City of Milwaukee in 2022. A  resulting map shows where it is relatively hot or cool.

Trees provide shade and conduct evapotranspiration, the process by which water moves from the ground, through their stems, and out their leaves as water vapor. In these ways, trees helped make parks and other green spaces temperature oases, with evening air temperatures up to seven degrees cooler than nearby locations.

Densely developed urban areas tend to be warmer than more open rural spaces due to the concentration of manmade surfaces, such as asphalt and concrete, that absorb and reradiate heat. This phenomenon, known as the urban heat island effect, is further compounded by rising temperature trends due to climate change.

Urban neighborhoods are also affected by this heat island dynamic, particularly in large cities such as Milwaukee, where there is a great variety of land covers and uses. The mapping campaign recorded a 10-degree difference in the evening between the hottest and coolest parts of the city. Continue reading “Heat Mapping Results From Milwaukee Published” →

By Dan Buckler, DNR Urban Forest Assessment Specialist, Daniel.Buckler@wisconsin.gov, 608-445-4578

Father and daughter bringing a tree home to decorate for Christmas. Source: WI DNR

At probably the same stage of life when I thought bread was just a medium to consume peanut butter, I thought the purpose of Christmas trees was to be a home for presents. However, like many people over the years, my appreciation for these incredible evergreen plants has grown. I love bringing green things into the home when the world can otherwise look bleak.

Unlike urban trees, which were planted and maintained for all sorts of benefits to humans and the wider environment, Christmas trees and other holiday plants are predominantly planted to be harvested at a young age. But like urban trees, their fate following their life’s work is unknown.

We wonder what you do with your Christmas trees or other holiday plants. We encourage you to fill out the short survey linked below. We are particularly interested in any novel ways you may utilize the plants. Next month, we will share results and, hopefully, a few stories.

SURVEY LINK Continue reading “What Do You Do With Your Old Christmas Trees?” →

By: Dan Buckler, Urban Forest Assessment Specialist

Generally, attention to the planet’s extinction crisis focuses on charismatic animal species. But what about a different branch of life, one that appeals to those with specific interests and expertise (such as readers of this article)? What is the status of America’s trees?

An extensive study published in the journal Plants People Planet documented all tree species native to the contiguous United States and classified their global extinction risk, creating or updating hundreds of species threat assessments. The results provide one of the most comprehensive appraisals of trees across the country, informing not just our expectation of these trees’ future ecological and economic roles but our moral duty as stewards on and for this planet. Continue reading “The Threat Of Extinction To America’s Tree Species” →