Equity-Centered Climate Action Through Urban Forestry

retreat focus

We are at a critical inflection point of change. Climate change is accelerating and intensifying. Urban areas in particular are experiencing heat extremes for which neither physical nor social systems are prepared.

We believe that these “extremes” will soon be recognized in many places as the approaching “norm.” Without effective strategies to use urban landscapes to both absorb carbon and grow resilience to climate change forces, communities will suffer from increasing health impacts, additional strains on already frayed social cohesion, and in many places, losses in economic and community viability.

Supporting Innovators to Advance Transformative Action

This initiative is designed to advance innovative approaches to using urban forestry to create equity-centered climate action solutions—both mitigation of carbon emissions and increasing resilience and adaptive capacity to climate change. We believe this can be accomplished through

• Supporting individual leaders to access high-leverage information, connections, and resources

• Fostering a dynamic and collaborative leadership network for ongoing collaboration in this critical field, and

• Exploring how to advance the knowledge systems, tools, and high-impact strategies to manage urban heat extremes through urban forestry.

40 individuals representing five leading cities/metro areas, urban forestry, and urban heat management specialists, equity-centered community development experts, leading non-governmental organizations (NGOs) supporting community-based efforts, and a cross-section of government and philanthropic representatives have agreed to participate.

How

A host committee and facilitation team led by Tim Merry of The Outside have worked for the last six months preparing for and designing this gathering. This three-day retreat will optimize opportunities for shared issue and opportunity identification, asset mapping, strategy sharing, and resource identification and leveraging. The summary agenda for the gathering can be found here.

The retreat location—Boulder’s renowned Chautauqua—was established in the late 1800s as part of a social/cultural movement that swept across the US in that period. That movement was based on the same principles as ours: creating time and space for thoughtful and committed people to face, work with, and identify ways to transform the most challenging issues of their time. The photo you see below is of the mountains just outside the doors of where we’ll be meeting.

What Next?

The gathering is simply a milestone on a longer journey we are all taking together. Part of the event’s objective is to introduce people to one another who may not have been aware they were engaged in similar work. Beyond this event, organizers plan to synthesize the important insights and actions identified during the gathering into two publications—one for leaders in the field, and the other designed for use in raising broader public awareness of the work of this emerging field and the leaders and organizations who are helping advance it. We will also maintain the information-sharing platform being developed to support this gathering for as long as the participants find that useful.

Inspiration and Resources

Leadership Cohort, Podcast + More from Tim Merry and The Outside

Resources on Climate Mitigation Through Urban Forestry

Carbon Management Tool for Urban Lands

Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Removals from Forest Land, Woodlands, and Urban Trees in the United States, 1990-2018, USDA

A collaborative approach to preparing for and reacting to emerald ash borer: a case study from Colorado

The Water Cycle: USGS Diagram

Resources on Equity-Centered Climate Action

Community science for the (climate) win: An equity-based framework for understanding and acting on extreme urban heat

Colorado Front Range Urban Forestry Expansion Strategy

Climate Safe Neighborhoods Partnership - Groundwork USA

Environmental Justice Implications of Siting Criteria in Urban Green Infrastructure Planning

Tree Equity Score: Ensuring tree cover in cities is equitably distributed

Climate Smart Cities Denver

Carbon Smart Wood™ + Circular Economies

Resources on Urban Heat Modeling + Management

Urban Climate Lab’s Louisville, KY Heat Management Study (2016) & Framework Climate Adaptation Planning (2019)

Community science for the (climate) win: An equity-based framework for understanding and acting on extreme urban heat

Growing Shade: An interactive map that visualizes and contextualizes opportunities for expanding tree canopy in urban areas

Planning for Extreme Heat: A Review