Urban and Community Forestry
The Urban and Community Forestry Program provides support to states, cities, and nonprofit groups, so they can plant, protect, maintain, and utilize wood from community trees.
Healthy trees and forests in urban areas contribute to improved air and water quality, watershed function, energy conservation, and social well-being.
About the Urban and Community Forestry Program
The Urban and Community Forestry Program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Forest Service is the only Federal program dedicated to growing and maintaining urban and community trees, forests, and green spaces. Authorized under the Cooperative Forestry Assistance Act of 1978, Urban Forestry assists States and partner organizations in applying nature-based solutions to chronic and emergent economic, social, and environmental challenges.
Key program facts:
- Dedicated to improving the conditions of forests in urban communities where 84 percent of Americans live, work, and play.
- Works with partners to improve the health and vibrancy of communities through planting and maintaining trees, forests, and green spaces.
- Traditionally funded at $36-40 million annually, including an approximate $1 million per year challenge cost share grant program delivered in collaboration with the National Urban & Community Forestry Advisory Council.
Technology and Science Delivery
The Forest Service’s National Urban Forest Technology & Science Delivery Team delivers quality urban natural resources science, technology, and information to improve the long-term sustainability of urban ecosystems. The team’s mission is to help inform environmental stewardship and sustainability with sound decisions about urban and community lands and the broader watershed, for wildlife and people.
Vibrant cities
Vibrant Cities Lab provides tools, research syntheses, and case studies to help the public discover how a healthy tree canopy can enrich their own community. Use our Step-by-Step Guide to implement urban forestry in your community.
State Forestry Agencies & Partners
The Forest Service’s Urban & Community Forestry program works closely with state forestry agencies and other partners to increase community awareness of the importance of trees in sustaining healthy and viable cities, communities, and neighborhoods; improve the social, natural, and environment for urban and community areas; and enable the development of self-sufficient local urban and community forestry programs.
The Forest Service provides financial assistance, some technical assistance, and training to state forestry agencies for program delivery (ex: community forestry planning, tree inventories and assessments, municipal code development, and tree pruning and maintenance). In addition, the Forest Service Urban & Community Forestry program coordinates the Tree Cities USA programs, and publishes informative websites and newsletters. An advisory council, with members representing a broad range of professional experience and geographic locations, provides guidance to each state Urban & Community Forestry program.
- Alaska: Urban & Community Forest website, State Advisory Council
- Oregon: Urban & Community website, State Advisory Council
- Washington: Urban & Community Forest website, State Advisory Council
Resources & References
- Urban Forests; Forest Service: Learn more about Forest Service work in urban areas.
- Urban Forests and Climate Change; Forest Service: Urban forests play an important role in climate change mitigation and adaptation.
- Urban Forestry; Urban Greening Research: This website, created by Dr. Kathleen Wolf and colleagues at the University of Washington, supported in part by the U.S. Forest Service, documents research on the benefits of urban trees and forests.
- Vibrant Cities Lab: This website provides research and real examples of how urban trees improve human health, economic development, water and air quality.
Contact Us
For additional information on the Forest Service's Urban and Community Forestry program in Alaska, Oregon, and Washington, contact Stephen Baker, Urban Forestry Coordinator, at stephen.baker@usda.gov.