The term “urban forest” may sound like an oxymoron. But the newest episode of our podcast, Forever Forward, offers insights into why it’s an aspiration rather than a contradiction. Trees in city landscapes have many benefits – absorbing stormwater and mitigating flooding, creating a wind barrier in hurricanes, and tempering the heat of summer. That’s why The Community Foundation recently made a $20,000 grant to the FUSE Executive Fellowship program to support Jacksonville’s urban forestry plan. A local FUSE Executive Fellow is working on how to best leverage $20 million from Jacksonville’s Tree Fund to help our urban forest grow. In this episode, Isaiah Oliver sat down with Anne Coglianese, Chief Resilience Officer for the City of Jacksonville, and Valerie Feinberg, FUSE Executive Fellow, to learn how their work is helping protect our region from the impacts of climate.
Below is a synopsis of the conversation.
Isaiah: Tell us about the City of Jacksonville’s resilience strategy and the award it recently received. How did you feel when you found out?
Anne: About a year ago, the city launched its first ever comprehensive resilience strategy called Resilient Jacksonville. We looked at a whole host of impacts that could affect our city over the next 50 years – things like sea level rise, population growth, and these really big trends that if we leave unaddressed, could have unintended consequences. We outlined 45 actions and 90 sub-actions that the city should take to get prepared for our future, and really make sure that we are building a safe and resilient community for years to come.
We were really pleased that our colleagues at the American Planning Association chose to give the Resilient Jacksonville Strategy the National Planning Award this past year for excellence in resilience and sustainability. For me personally, this was an honor to be recognized by our peers across the country.
It was also really a turning point in the way we think about resilience. In Jacksonville, when I first started three years ago, there’s kind of a perception that we were behind other communities in Florida and across the country, and I think what we can feel now is that not only we’re in a good place, but we’re now a national leader on how to do effective resilience planning, how to lean on science and data to make better decisions, and really be a model of good governance on climate and on resilience.
Isaiah: So tell us about the FUSE Executive Fellowship. How did you come to know about it, and why is it important as a part of the partnerships that we have here in Jacksonville?
Anne: Before I came to the City of Jacksonville, I worked for the city of New Orleans, and New Orleans had a number of FUSE Fellows working there. They were some of the most dynamic and creative and driven people I’ve had the opportunity to work with in my career. And so when we were looking at the office of resilience and how to build it out here, we recognized that there were some special projects that would be coming up where an infusion of really excellent talent for the period of a year or two could really move the needle for Jacksonville. One of those efforts was on developing an urban forest management plan. So, we worked with FUSE Corps to bring on an executive fellow, somebody who spent their career in the private sector or nonprofit or philanthropy, but would be embedded in local government for a year or two to really move the needle on urban forestry. And that’s how we were able to bring on Valerie. She’s been working over the last year to get this plan started. And we’re really excited that The Community Foundation has been willing to support Valerie’s fellowship so that we can have her for a second year and really see this through. Jacksonville’s urban forest is one of the best ways that we can manage extreme heat and storm water. We see this as a really critical, interdisciplinary part of our resilience planning.
Isaiah: Could you tell me a little bit more about what our grant is allowing you to do?
Anne: It’s going to let us have a second year of this fellowship. We have grown the office of resilience in a number of ways. Over the last year, we’ve added permanent city staff, but for this project, we really need focused planning and somebody to be a project manager on this, bringing community groups to the table, managing a team of expert consultants that that the city has hired, and really keeping a finger on the pulse of all of these different moving parts. And so thanks to the generous support of The Community Foundation, we’re going to be able to have to be able to have Valerie in that role for a second year and really make sure that this is a high-quality work product, something that allows us to unlock the potential of other city resources and get more trees in the ground, in the right spot, to see those benefits really play out.
Isaiah: Can you explain a little bit more about the tree fund and how your team, including Valerie, is working on putting that to best use?
Anne: When, when trees have to be cut down in a development, developers are paying into a tree fund, and then the city has the opportunity to use that money to plant new trees. So there is quite a lot of funding that has accrued in that. On one hand, that is good, because it means we have more development happening and we’re building a city where more people can live. But we also know that we have a really strong responsibility to actually move that money and get trees in the ground. There’s over $20 million in that tree fund, and so part of Valerie’s fellowship and part of the development of this plan will help us figure out how can we deploy that funding in the best way, particularly looking at our urban heat island and places where our tree canopy is really low, and identifying what’s the right tree to put in the ground, in the right spot, to get the best benefits. Some parts of our city need heat reduction. Other parts of our city are very wet and chronically low-lying, and so tree species that absorb more stormwater are better suited there. Valerie will be leading a team of experts to evaluate Jacksonville’s land cover and figure out where we can put trees, and work with community groups to make sure that there’s education and awareness of this effort.
Isaiah: So there’s lots of unique things about Northeast Florida. Is this idea of a tree fund unique to Northeast Florida? Or do these things exist across the country?
Anne: This is something that other communities have, as well. But I think where we are right now is we have a lot of money that’s accrued, and so we have an opportunity to not just be spending this as it comes in, but really to do this extensive planning and make sure that we’re leveraging that funding for the best outcome for our city. It allows us to take steps to counterbalance where we’ve seen development increase extreme heat in certain areas, and where we have legacy infrastructure that that’s led to low tree canopy and under-investment in landscaping and tree cover. I think the fact that we have this large amount of funding set aside, and that it’s meeting the moment with this plan, will allow us to really have the best outcome for Jacksonville.
Isaiah: Valerie, tell us a little bit about you, and how you came to the city of Jacksonville as a FUSE Executive fellow.
Valerie: FUSE is a national nonprofit, and it aims to increase the effectiveness of local governments to build more equitable communities by aligning seasoned professionals with local governments. FUSE Fellows work outside the framework of the government, and so they might have a little more latitude to influence policies and programs.
I’ve been working in Jacksonville for the past 20 years as an urban planner – public, nonprofit and private sides. Over the past 15 years, I’ve focused on the intersection of the built environment and natural environments, the impact on population health and community wellness. So when FUSE reached out to me with this opportunity, I was really intrigued. I first thought, you need a landscape architect. And then the more that I read about it, and the more I talked to them, I realized that, no, they really needed a planner for this. This is multidisciplinary. You really need somebody who’s very familiar with the community, which I was, since I’ve worked here. Those connections have been very helpful. I liked that Jacksonville was moving to the Resilient Jacksonville plan, which Anne’s team has done a great job with. This project aligns so nicely with the plan. It’s really great to see Jacksonville moving in this direction. We’ve needed to, for a while.
Isaiah: So I’ll ask a fun question, probably fun for me, and then a more sophisticated question. First – What is “urban forestry”? For a person who’s outside of that space, I just don’t understand completely what it is, and those two words – “urban forestry” – seem to run up against one another and start a fight, in a way. The second question is – What role does it play in resilience and climate?
Valerie: I think that’s a great question. “Urban forestry” just sounds contradictory, right? Because we’re really looking at the entire county, the entire city, and urban, suburban and rural have different connotations. But when we’re looking at the urban forest, we’re looking at the whole tree canopy, and that’s kind of the catch phrase we use – urban forestry.
It’s really important – the role trees play in our ecology and economy, in so many ways. For example, trees help clean the air and improve the air quality, when we know that we have high asthma rates in this county and there are chronic diseases. They reduce the heat island effects [where areas of dense development are hotter than nearby areas with more vegetation]. We’ve heard about heat islands this whole summer – it’s very hot – and significantly, trees provide shade.
We’re looking at neighborhoods that have been disenfranchised over the years. They haven’t been invested in, and they’ve been kind of chopped apart by the Federal Highway System. We’re part of a dialogue now about communities that are really trying to get reinvestment. And trees are a big part of that: having access to trees and outdoor space, for recreation, for mental health, for physical health, and so we’re really focusing on a lot of the neighborhoods, and aligning our partnerships with the great work that’s being done all over Jacksonville.
Isaiah: When I first moved here, there were two things that my family was afraid of: one was alligators, and the other was hurricanes. I was told, as I was preparing for this interview, that trees might be protecting us from hurricanes. Could you just talk a little bit about that?
Valerie: Yes! People have two ways of thinking about it. One is that they worry that a tree is too close to their house, and it might fall in a hurricane, and they’ll have to pay for it. But when you cluster trees together, the wind comes over the trees and they create a really protective barrier. Some of the trees that we hear folks worried about are ones that probably are not planted in the right place at the right time. So, the urban forest management plan will really help direct that, and also to help educate people, including about how we properly trim and prune the trees so that we don’t have these issues during storm events.
Isaiah: Jacksonville is one of the largest cities in the country by land mass. Can you explain how the urban forest varies from neighborhood to neighborhood, and how you’re focusing your efforts in a large geographic area?
Jacksonville is crazy big! It’s made up of so many different communities, as you said. The urban core is a challenge in and of itself for tree growth because of all the hardscape. So one of the efforts is looking at how we can have trees thriving in our downtown area, to protect, provide beauty and aesthetics, and all the other benefits that trees do. So we’re looking at different techniques. Are there subsurface infrastructure techniques that we can now incorporate when we start doing redevelopment? Redevelopment is a time where we can start looking at these things and experimenting in a constrained environment, like the urban core. And then, as I mentioned, the urban neighborhoods have been disenfranchised through redlining, not investing in the communities, the highway system, and the way that they bifurcated neighborhoods and impacted the walkability and the community values. We have so many groups now working in the great neighborhoods, doing fabulous things, and so we’re really aligning with those efforts. We don’t want to go out and start something new. We want to align with what they’re doing in their neighborhoods for improvement, and we want to talk to them about why trees are important. Where do you want trees? How do you take care of trees? Can we train a workforce to go into this industry? Then, of course, we have the rural communities. If you have JTA [Jacksonville Transportation Authority] bus lines running out there, and there’s a bus stop, there’s often a swale in front of it and there are no trees. It’s hot. Those are opportunities in the rural communities where we can get trees planted, as well.
Isaiah: Anne, you recently announced a partnership with Nat Ford and our good friends at JTA. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Anne: I’m so glad you brought up the partnership that we have with JTA. This is one of my favorite stories to tell, because it involves a student, and I really love when we can get students involved in the work that government does. We had an undergraduate student, a senior at Jacksonville University, last spring, Grace Filmont, who approached Valerie and I about doing a project for her senior capstone, and she wanted to do a website and a story map about the importance of trees. And, of course, that’s a great idea, but we have some more critical work we need to have done. We need to get some trees in the ground, and we need to start thinking about some of the most vulnerable people.
So, I asked her to table her idea of a tree map, and instead focus on JTA bus stops and where we might have places that are suitable for trees in the in the short term. And JTA was just so excited about this. They came to the planning table, worked with our office and the public works department, and we got an initial cohort of trees that went in the ground back in the fall. They have been willing to have this be an ongoing effort to continue to look for new stops that could have trees. At the end of all of this, when we did our first tree planting event, we finally had time and the energy to put together that tree story map that Grace had initially pitched. So, we’re able to tell the story of trees while we’re also putting trees in the ground. I just love that we were able to do this student partnership, which became an interdisciplinary public partnership between the city and JTA.
Now, there’s a lot of momentum going forward. I think the best thing about this effort is that it’s really parallel to Valerie’s overall urban forest management plan. We can step back. We can be the wide-angle lens as the resilience office. We can do these big studies, and we can pull in scientists and experts and make sure that our long-term investments are strategic and well-timed. And we can take care of the low-hanging fruit, and we can put infrastructure in the ground today that helps our most vulnerable residents, people who are relying on transit. I just really appreciate that we’re able to push in both directions at the same time.
It’s all part of a cohesive framework where we’re really going to take the tree canopy seriously. I think about something the mayor likes to say when she’s out in the community, that trees are infrastructure. We need to start valuing our green infrastructure at the same level that we do our gray infrastructure –our streets and our roads. And you know, the old tagline is that, you know, the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, and the next best time is today. Jacksonville is really taking that to heart, and we’re making trees a big focus.
Isaiah: Trees are infrastructure. Anne and Valerie, thank you so much for being with us today. This is fascinating work. I’ve learned a lot just in this short conversation with you all. We are lucky as a community to have two such bright leaders working on these tough issues. Thank you!