Natural Areas account for the majority of urban parkland in the U.S. However, this type of parkland is not well described, or understood at a national scale. The Natural Areas Conservancy has worked with 17-U.S. cities to form the Forests in Cities Network to advance the science and practice of managing the vital forested natural areas. Seattle has been a leader in this network and contributed case studies and lessons learned from local efforts. We will provide an overview of several resources developed by the network including a newly released Urban Silviculture Guide that connects rural forest practices to urban settings. We will also describe a catalogue of resources compiled by the network to help make the case, assess, advocate for more resources, and manage urban natural areas. Finally we will share an overview of a cooling study that 12 cities participated in (including Seattle) to quantify the impact of healthy urban natural areas to cooling cities and mitigating urban heat.
Presenters: Clara Pregitzer, PhD, Deputy Director of Conservation Science at the Natural Areas Conservancy
