Houston Area Urban Forests Regional Framework

The Houston Area Urban Forests framework outlines shared goals and objectives between three urban counties, recommended strategies and projects, and available resources to meet them. Representing local, state and federal governments, private forestry businesses, concerned residents, and a range of nongovernmental organizations involved in urban forestry management, the authors sought to find overlapping areas of concern and priority as the basis for establishing goals and objectives for the Houston Area Urban Forest region.

In a nutshell, this resource offers:

• A unifying vision to align local urban forestry work into a broader regional context.
• Short-term, local recommendations to supplement existing regional urban forestry efforts.
• An index of potential funding sources for urban forestry in Texas (though some sources are nationally applicable).

How to use this resource:

• As an example for outlining priority projects with metrics that speak to elected officials (gallons of runoff stored, pounds of pollutants scrubbed from the air, etc.)
• As a framework that provides regional goals and objectives to direct local efforts.
• As a method to increase coordination among urban forestry professionals, build organizational capacity, and enhance financial and data resources.
• Foster public appreciation of the benefits of tree canopy and urban forests to support ongoing forestry efforts.

Author: Houston Galveston Area Council, in collaboration with U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities and American Forests.

Date published: March 6, 2018.

Point of contact: Rose Esteves, (832) 395-7058, Rose.Esteves@houstontx.gov.

Citation: Houston Area Urban Forests Project; U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities; American Forests. 2018. Houston Area Urban Forests: A Regional Framework for Supporting Healthy Urban Forests in the Greater Houston Area. Houston Galveston Area Council, Houston, TX.

Resource is available online here.