Welcome to the Urban Forestry Administration. During 2004 we planted 5,500 new street trees, exceeding our target by 500 trees and completed planting one month ahead of schedule. In addition, we provided emergency response to downed trees or branches and provided ongoing maintenance of the over 114,000 District’s street trees; pruned 15,300 trees, and removed 1,700 dead or diseased trees. Our pruning efforts are taking us closer to our goal of a 5-year pruning cycle for all District street trees. This year saw the passage of regulations to support the enforcement of the District’s Urban Forestry Preservation Act of 2002 (the Tree Bill).

We are committed to providing the highest level of professional service and as a demonstration of that we have five International Society of Arboriculture certified arborists on staff and are in the process of having other staff arborists become certified. UFA staff attended a number of training courses on Tree and Electrical Hazard Recognition, Tree Hazard Rating, and Plant Disease Identification.

The past year has seen a number of changes in the way we do business. We acquired a Tree Radar Unit; a noninvasive instrument (somewhat similar to an MRI machine) used to determine the amount of decay in our trees. This information is used with other factors to develop the tree’s Hazard Rating which is used to better support decisions as to whether or not a tree should be removed. We began use of Tablet Personal Computers in our daily operations to collect and update individual street tree data, conduct inspections, and generate works orders. Our street tree database is updated daily with information collected in the field.

We continued to partner with non-profits organizations, and both local and Federal agencies through grants we received and by our awarding small greening grants with funds provided by the US Forest Service. In addition to the US Forest Service grant, we received a grant from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation for riparian (along river banks) tree plantings and a grant from the International Monetary Fund for planting street trees in the downtown area of the District. A Technical Advisory Board was established to provide grant review for our greening grants program and technical expertise on urban forestry challenges related to the District.

Last year saw the reintroduction of the Arbor Day National Poster Contest to 5th graders in the District. Students from School for Arts in Learning, Horace Mann and Benning Elementary Schools were recognized for their poster submission at the District’s Arbor Day celebration that was held at Banneker Community Center.

On behalf of the staff of the Urban Forestry Administration, I wish to thank you for your continued support as we work to have the District regain its title as “The City of Trees.”
 
Sincerely,
 
Ainsley Caldwell, Chief and State Forester,
January 2005