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Urban Forest Management Plan
The City of Bangor is committed to cultivating a healthier, more resilient urban forest to benefit residents and visitors alike.
Bangor’s trees provide numerous benefits, including shade, beauty, a sense of community, stormwater interception, pollution uptake, and wildlife habitat. Trees require proactive management to ensure their benefits are enjoyed throughout their long lifespans. We’re currently developing a comprehensive Urban Forest Management Plan (UFMP) that will provide a strategy for long-term care and investment in our community’s tree canopy. This plan will build upon existing efforts by the City to ensure sustainable growth, equitable distribution of tree coverage, and a vibrant urban landscape for generations to come. By assessing current conditions, envisioning a thriving future, and outlining actionable strategies, the UFMP will guide Bangor toward a greener, more inclusive city.
Bangor’s UFMP project will take into consideration all trees in the City. A public tree inventory will provide information on trees right-of-way and on public property, and a tree canopy assessment will evaluate the percentage of the City shaded by trees, both on public and private property and in forested areas. This project will build off existing relevant plans that have already been developed for the City, such as the Parks & Recreation Master Plan, Rolland F. Perry City Forest Management Plan, and the Emerald Ash Borer Response Plan. The UFMP will use this information to develop management recommendations for City-managed trees and preserving the tree canopy for everyone.
This project is funded by a grant through the Inflation Reduction Act Urban and Community Forestry (IRA UCF) grant program, administered by the Maine Forest Service (MFS) Project Canopy program.
YOU are needed to help make this project possible. The people of Bangor are invited to share their opinion on the City’s urban forestry practices: what is done well and what would you like to see happen? Please have a say and fill out the community survey today!
A community workshop will be held in April to collaborate in person. Please reach out with your ideas!
While the tree inventory looks at individual trees and their management, a tree canopy assessment looks at all of the trees within Bangor’s city boundary. This is done using publicly available satellite imagery provided by the National Agricultural Imagery Program (NAIP, https://naip-usdaonline.hub.arcgis.com/). Looking just at Bangor, the land cover is determined to be bare earth, water, impervious (buildings/roads), herbaceous (non-woody plants), or tree. That data is then analyzed for the City as a whole, and also for distinct geographies such as neighborhoods or census blocks. This information will be used to inform the UFMP on where tree canopy inequalities may exist, and provide recommendations on future tree planting efforts.
To see an example of tree canopy data, visit https://treecanopy.us/
Bangor’s tree inventory is a record of publicly owned and managed trees, including those along streets and in parks. Collected data includes tree species, size (diameter at breast height, or DBH), and location, both GPS coordinates and street address. The City’s Forestry Division maintains the inventory and updates the data. The information in the tree inventory will be used in Bangor’s Operations Plan and the Urban Forest Management Plan to develop work and budgetary estimates and provide recommendations on where public trees can be planted.
The Operational Plan will provide guidelines for how the City should manage the urban forest in the near future (3-5 years). Starting with current operations, we will look at what work the City is doing and what needs to be done to develop workloads and budgets. We will also look at the current workflows and procedures, and determine how they should be adjusted.
In order to make recommendations for how Bangor should manage its trees in the future, we first need to understand how it is currently being managed. To do this, we’ll be looking at current policies and procedures, City ordinances, and related plans that are already developed. We will also interview City staff involved with tree maintenance, and benchmark the City against similar communities. With this information, we can understand what the City is doing well and where things could be better.