A small subcommittee of the Fox Valley Sustainability Communities Network (SCN) has been reviewing community ordinances related to the urban forestry currently being practiced in the Fox Valley and elsewhere in the state. The spread sheets illustrating our findings related to published community ordinances can be found on this website. These are listed as pages entitled:
- Area County Shoreline and Woodland Management
- Terrace Planting Management
- Terrace Planting Management, Page 2
- Terrace Planting Management, Page 3
A quick review shows that there are both wide differences in content and intent between communities and that many maybe in need of some degree of updating.
This being the case, it was proposed that we might provide a benefit to the wider Fox Valley by inviting urban forestry managers to a meeting to explain the information we have compiled and ask for input on ways we can support their work. Consideration of the findings might also lead to a broader commonality of ordinance language and community interaction.
This later point was uncovered in the initial comments we obtained from our local DNR representatives who suggested that the Arbor Day Foundation (arborday.org) has both model ordinances and extensive reasoning for these that might be useful to us here in the Valley. A large PDF (Guidelines for Developing and Evaluating Tree Ordinances) can be found at the following link which we will summarize at the proposed meeting.
http://www.isa-arbor.com/education/onlineResources/treeOrdinanceGuidelines.aspx
The intent to send invitations to this meeting will be discussed at our next quarterly meeting of the SCN on December 3rd.
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