Urban Forestry

URBAN FORESTRY UPDATE 5/14/20:

The Urban Forestry permitting program has been temporarily paused for work that is not related to construction. This includes pruning, removal and planting permits. Permitting will likely resume in the fall. Urban Forestry will still be addressing hazard trees and emergency requests. If you have questions, please contact 541-682-4800.

 

At this time, non-hazard inspection requests are experiencing delays of more than 48 hours. We appreciate your patience and will respond to requests as soon as possible.

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Who We Are and What we do


Mission

In addition to their aesthetic value, city trees provide significant ecosystem services essential for our current and future generations. Our mission is to maximize the social, economic and environmental benefits of Eugene’s urban forest and to minimize its costs and liabilities by means of adaptive management and community engagement. –Urban Forestry Program Review (2013).


Vision

The Urban Forestry program manages more than 76,000 public street trees. Our team strives to promote a healthier and more sustainable urban forest, foster community tree awareness and stewardship, and develop tree projects and regulations.


Our vision is to increase city-wide canopy cover from our current 23% (2017) to over 30%, and to improve tree care, health, and safety to maximize the benefits they provide to our community.


Our Services

The Urban Forestry workgroup provides the following services:

  • Emergency response
  • Street tree maintenance, consisting of: planting, pruning and removal
  • Street tree removal and planting permits
  • Street tree inspections
  • Street tree appraisals
  • Street tree inventory

Our Urban Forestry Team

Our group is composed of 10 International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) Certified Arborists, including three board certified Master Arborists and six Tree Risk Assessment Qualification (TRAQ) credentialed arborists:

  • 1 Urban forestry manager
  • 1 Urban forestry management analyst
  • 1 Lead arborist
  • 4 Operations staff members
  • 3 Urban forestry technical specialists
  • 1-2 seasonal interns when budget allows

group of staff members standing in field


Urban Forestry arborists also practice aerial rescue on a monthly basis to ensure that we are prepared in the event of a high angle rescue. Training consists of the extraction of a person from a tree using modern climbing techniques or an aerial lift truck. This training is done periodically in conjunction with Eugene Springfield Fire Department staff. Our goal is to be able to perform a safe, efficient and effective rescue of either one of our own staff or a member of the community, if necessary.


three staff members practicing aerial rescue in tree


Visit our photo gallery.


Short URLs to this page:

www.eugene-or.gov/urbanforest

www.eugene-or.gov/urbanforestry