Managing for Urban Biodiversity

 

Filbert steps, San Francisco, CA

How does one increase the plant and animal biodiversity in a city? Alexis Alvey gives us four places to start in her 2006 article in Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, entitled "Promoting and preserving biodiversity in the urban forest" (5, 2006). Alvey suggests that landscape management should increase the biodiversity in all available parts of the urban forest; including street trees, parks, woodlots, abandoned sites, and residential areas. There are four steps that she recommends to concentrate on: 1) developing a tree inventory, 2) planting for biodiversity, 3) urban parks and woodlots, and 4) residential areas and people. Establishing a tree inventory is a great place to start and creates baseline data from which to make decisions. Software programs such as i-Tree and CITYgreen are available to use for data collection and organizing. Planting for biodiversity simply expands the city tree palette to include more diverse species. Municipal landscape regulations are increasingly recommending or mandating that street tree monocultures are no longer to be used. Adding a diversity of species by planting in existing parks and woodlots is a simple way to increase biodiversity through arbor day plantings or annual planting efforts. Finally, Alvey concludes that public education about diversifying yards and gardens is crucial to create an informed public.