Community and Urban Forestry

Resources to help arboreta support healthy urban and community forests.

These resources share insights, presentations, and research on how arboreta and public gardens contribute to urban and community forestry efforts.

Whether you are establishing a new arboretum in a community setting, advancing urban forestry partnerships, or caring for trees in an urban environment, these curated tools and examples will help you design, manage, and advocate for tree-focused projects that bolster environmental and community wellbeing.

Arboretum Accreditation Tool Kits

These tool kits will guide you through the ArbNet accreditation process, the steps to create a new arboretum, or building your arboretum’s capacity to upgrade to a higher level of accreditation.

Cemetery Arboretum Tool Kit (ArbNet)

City Arboretum Tool Kit (ArbNet)

School Arboretum Tool Kit (ArbNet)

University/College Arboretum Tool Kit (ArbNet)

The Role of Arboreta and Public Gardens in Community and Urban Forestry

ArbNet: 10 years of fostering collaborations, furthering professionalism, and advancing the planting and conservation of trees through the global network of arboreta (Turner-Skoff et al., 2021)

BGCI Technical Review: The role of botanic gardens in urban greening and conserving urban biodiversity (Botanic Gardens Conservation International): Report by Nicole Cavender, Paul Smith, and Kate Marfleet on the contributions and potential role that botanic gardens and arboreta can play in community forestry.

2nd World Forum on Urban Forests, 2023: The Washington D.C. Declaration

Urban and Community Forestry Presentations: Recorded presentations from the 2021 ArbNet Conference by speakers Cindi Sullivan (TreesLouisville, Inc.), Courtney Blashka (Holden Forests and Gardens), and Jay Wilshire, M. Ed. (College of Lake County)

Intersecting urban forestry and botanical gardens to address big challenges for healthier trees, people, and cities: Journal article in Plants, People, Planet (PPP) by Nicole Cavender and Gerry Donnelly on the role that botanical gardens and arboreta can play in addressing urban forestry problems and urban tree health.

What’s in an Arboretum?: International Society of Arboriculture article, published in the June 2019 Arborist News (pp. 55-60), by ArbNet staff on the benefit of arboreta to communities.

Finding Urban Trees for A Changing World: Exploring Public Garden Contributions to Urban Forestry: American Public Gardens Association 2019 conference poster from Jehane Samaha and Cecil Konijendijk Van den Bosch (The University of British Columbia) that considers the role arborists play in community forestry.

How a Public Garden is Redefining Outreach in the Urban Forest: Powerpoint presentation from Tower Hill Botanic Garden that describes Worcester Tree Initiative Outreach Program, their successful outreach and partnership program to bring horticulture to Worcester, Massachusetts.

Morris Arboretum’s Urban Forestry Consultants: To bring in revenue, Morris Arboretum offers arboricultural services to the Philadelphia tri-state area.

Urban Tree Care and Management

Chicago Region Trees Initiative: The Morton Arboretum’s Chicago Region Trees Initiative (CRTI) is a partnership for coordinated action on key issues facing trees in the Chicagoland region, with actionable goals for canopy cover, species and age diversity, and management expertise.

The Stewardship Mapping Project (STEW-MAP): A framework for communities, governments, land management agencies, and nonprofits to create a partnership mapping tool

Arboriculture and Urban Forestry (ISA journal): Open access for all

Urban Forestry and Landscape Resources (University of Massachusetts Amherst):

Landscape Fact Sheets (information on care/maintenance of trees, diseases, etc.)
Urban Forestry Today (resources such as videos, lectures, and publications on urban forestry)

Urban Forestry Resources (New York State Urban Forestry Council)

Urban Forestry Fundamentals series (New York State Urban Forestry Council):

Tree Planting and Care Resources (Arbor Day Foundation)

Climate Assessment Tool (Climate Change Alliance of Botanic Gardens, Botanic Gardens Conservation International): A tree species selection tool for your garden/location under different climate change scenarios

Tree Species Selection for Green Infrastructure: A Guide for Specifiers (Hirons and Sjöman, 2019): Comprehensive research-based decision-making tool on selecting appropriate species for a range of contrasting planting scenarios (guide and companion database)

Urban Tree Selection for Diversification (Hilbert et al., 2020)

Search Trees and Plants (The Morton Arboretum): Species selection tool with many different filters for finding the right plant for the right place

Urban and Community Forestry Program (New Jersey Forest Service): Reforestation, tree planting, and maintenance plan guidelines

Tree Owner’s Manua l (U.S. Forest Service)

A Guide: Developing a Street and Park Tree Management Plan (U.S. Forest Service)

Tree Pruning Essentials video (Purdue University)

The Care and Protection of Large and Important Trees (National Champion Tree Program, U.S., 2025)

Tree Protection During Design & Construction (Pennsylvania State University, APGA Conference, 2017)

Protecting Trees During Construction (Colorado State University Extension)

Hazard Tree Management (U.S. Forest Service)

TREE Fund Webinar Series (Tree Research and Education Endowment Fund)

Urban Tree Species Selection

Urban Horticulture Institute Resources (Cornell University)

Plants Selection: Resources to help identify the right plants for the right site. Includes Recommended Urban Trees (site assessment and tree selection for stress tolerance) and a Woody Plants Database (tool to help you choose the right tree, shrub or woody vine based on your site’s conditions)

Transplanting: Resources for successfully transplanting urban trees and woody plants

Community Forestry: Resources on building a healthy urban forest, conducting a community tree inventory, and working with plants and people

Benefits and Value of Community Trees

The benefits of trees for livable and sustainable communities (Turner-Skoff and Cavender, 2019): A critical review of the benefits trees provide to communities and cities

Plant a tree and save a life? The value of planting more trees in urban areas (Watts et al., 2024)

Value of Urban Forests (USFS, 2023): Studies on the benefits of trees, broken down by benefit type (air, water, people, etc)

U.S. Forest Service Community Tree Guides (2023): Guides that identify and describe the benefits and costs of planting trees in a specific climate zone to assist community officials and tree managers increase public awareness and support for tree programs

Trees at Work (U.S. Forest Service, Arbor Day Foundation, and PlanIT Geo, 2024): U.S. National Urban Tree Canopy Assessment, Spatial Accomplishment Dashboard (of urban forestry initiatives), and related reports, data, and maps

Connecting Communities to Trees in Response to COVID-19 (Turner-Skoff et al., 2022): Poster displaying how healthy tree canopies can support healthy communities, and how botanic gardens and arboreta can contribute

Urban trees support global biodiversity and sustainable societies (Conference of Parties (COP-15) of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD))

Praise for diversity: A functional approach to reduce risks in urban forests (Paquette et al., 2021)

The Complex Issue of Urban Trees—Stress Factor Accumulation and Ecological Service Possibilities (Czaja et al., 2020)

Strategically growing the urban forest will improve our world (Endreny, 2018)

World Forum on Urban Forests publications

The Benefits and Limits of Urban Tree Planting for Environmental and Human Health (Pataki et al., 2021)

What’s My Tree Worth? Tree Appraisal Case Studies (Purdue University): Case examples of tree appraisal