Urban forestry management plan : recommendations for the University of British Columbia Vancouver campus
Jessica Lompart, Thomas Ikeda
2017
The University of British Columbia (UBC) Vancouver campus has a green reputation. It is located within the Pacific Northwest on the lower mainland of British Columbia within the Coastal Western Hemlock Biogeoclimatic zone. The Vancouver campus's landscape was originally designed around the idea of "a clearing in the forest". However, based on interviews with members of the campus community, we noticed that an interest for integrating the forest into campus has emerged. As such, UBC now faces
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... challenge of balancing its urban forest values and resources, development pressures, and an ever-increasing student body. The original objective of the project was to review tree retention and protection policies currently in place and provide recommendations to improve them. The need for this was based on significant loss of UBC's urban forest due to development all around campus (Sutherland, 2012). However, based on an analysis of current guidelines and best practices, it was identified that UBC needs a complete urban forest management plan to adequately protect and replace its trees. As such, the scope of this report expanded to provide recommendations to strengthen the implementation and enforcement of tree policies and procedures at the UBC Vancouver campus. In doing so, this report seeks to maintain and improve UBC's current urban forest and reflect the values and needs of campus stakeholders. The recommendations were based on an analysis of current plans and guidelines for the UBC campus, interviews with key actors involved with urban forestry on campus, and an analysis of urban forestry management plans of other major municipalities and university campuses. Five main recommendations were outlined: 1. Improve implementation and enforcement of urban forest management policies and guidelines 2. Maintain and improve distribution and cohesivity of the campus urban forest 3. Incorporate aesthetics management into urban forest management as a part of campus landscape design 4. Empower the campus [...]
doi:10.14288/1.0356640
fatcat:iavppbiw4jamdawmeaxple2tkm