2019 News

December 2019- BUFRG researchers Burney Fischer and Donovan Moxley are two co-authors of a paper just accepted by Climatic Change.

Reynolds HL, Brandt L, Fischer BC, Hardiman BS, Moxley DJ, Sandweiss E, Speer J, Fei S. (2019) Implications of climate change for managing urban green infrastructure in Indiana. Climatic Change. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-019-02617-0

Abstract - Urban areas around the world are increasingly investing in networks of urban forests, gardens, and other forms of green infrastructure for their benefits, including enhanced livability, sustainability, and climate change mitigation and adaptation. Proactive planning for climate change requires anticipating potential climate change impacts to green infrastructure and adjusting management strategies accordingly. We apply climate change projections for the Midwest, U.S. state of Indiana to assess the possible impacts of climate change on common forms of urban green infrastructure, and identify management implications. Projected changes in Indiana’s temperature and precipitation could pose numerous management challenges for urban green infrastructure, including water stress, pests, weeds, disease, invasive species, flooding, frost risk, and timing of maintenance. Meeting these challenges will involve managing for key characteristics of resilient systems (e.g. biodiversity, redundancy) as well as more specific strategies addressing particular climate changes (e.g. shifting species compositions, building soil water holding capacity). Climate change also presents opportunities to promote urban green infrastructure. Unlike human built infrastructure, green infrastructure is conducive to grassroots stewardship and governance, relieving climate change-related strains on municipal budgets. Resources for adapting urban green infrastructure to climate change are already being applied to the management of urban green infrastructure, and emerging research will enhance understanding of best management practices.

November 2019- Project update: Indiana Municipal Urban Forests- Environmental Sustainability Review

“Municipal Urban Forestry in Indiana: Are programs addressing sustainability?”

BUFRG researchers (Fischer, Moxley, Freeman-Day, DeVoe, Hummel and Reamer) have developed a methodology to scan the websites of all Indiana cities with a ‘reported’ municipal urban forestry program.  The first step was to develop a set of criteria (3) to identify possible Indiana municipal urban forestry programs. All Tree City USA’s were included (active or recently active). A grants database (1991-2016) from the Indiana Division of Forestry’s Community and Urban Forestry program identified grant recipients, some of which were not TCUSA’s but received funding for street tree and/or canopy cover inventories and/or the creation of city urban forest plans.  Finally, the identification of all city arborists from the Indiana Arborist Association’s membership list was added. The result was a listing of 75 cities deemed to possibly have an active urban forestry program. We scanned each city’s website to learn all we could about each program regarding staffing, budgets, inventories, plans, reports, connections to internal departments and external groups, etc. We learned several things from this process. First, many programs are invisible and clearly not lead by an urban forester or arborist.  Second, most programs do not have recent inventories, urban forestry plans, or specific goals related to UF sustainability or they are not easily accessible in a public platform (municipal website). Additionally, very few have documented concern for changing environmental conditions or included in their plan adaptation to climate change effects. This result was not really unexpected for many programs and has resulted in a second step, the development of an online survey to be sent to the identified lead individuals The survey will attempt to give a more complete picture for each urban forestry program and address the question, “How environmentally sustainable are Indiana’s Urban Forests?”

September 2019 Part two- Burney Fischer interviewed in news story highlighting Bloomington's 2019 street tree inventory

The City of Bloomington recently contracted with Davey Resource Group to perform a complete inventory, available here for the public to access.  A recent story, “A new report shows Bloomington’s urban forest is healthy, larger, more diverse” published in the Indiana Daily Student features an interview with Dr. Burney Fischer, where he emphasizes the importance of species diversity in the urban forest’s resilience to pests and disease and warns of a potential future challenge to the health of Bloomington’s urban forest due to the large proportion of red maple trees within the forest population.

Fischer is quoted, saying “The problem is there’s way too many red maple trees on IU’s campus. The threat is that if we ever have something, a disease or insect, that damages red maple trees, we’re really in trouble.” The city’s maple population, at 24% of the total urban forest, while down from 30% in 2007, remains above recommended thresholds. Having this knowledge from the 2019 Street Tree Inventory can inform decisions on which species to plant in future projects. 

August 2019- BUFRG Collaborator Sarah Mincey interviewed on All IN program on Indianapolis Public Radio Station WFYI 

Listen to podcast here

Sarah Mincey, MSES/MPA 2007, Ph.D. Environmental Science 2012 represented IU’s O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs on a panel along with representatives from Indiana DNR and Keep Indianapolis Beautiful, which discussed urban forests around the state of Indiana. Her focus was on the social benefits the urban forest provides for the public as well as the need to consider equity in planning for a resilient urban forest.

On the program, Sarah shares insights from studies done by BUFRG collaborators. Highlights include Fischer and Moxley’s 2017 project "Exploring the ecological legacy of redlining maps used by the Homeowners Loan Corporation in Indianapolis: 80 years later" and "Explaining planted-tree survival and growth in urban neighborhoods: A social–ecological approach to studying recently-planted trees in Indianapolis" (Vogt et al. 2015). She emphasizes the strengths gained from community partnerships, including those between universities and non-profit organizations, as well as the biophysical and social benefits the urban forest and the community receive from neighborhood-level collaboration.

July 2019-  Jess Vogt profiled in Arborist News after receiving Early Career Scientist Award

The June 2019 issue of Arborist News features a full-page profile ofJess Vogt, BUFRG collaborator and SPEA Alum MPA-MSES '12, PhD '14. Vogt received the 2018 International Society of Arboriculture Early Career Scientist Award for her exceptional promise in international arboricultural research. Her work over the past ten years has focused on the relationship between humans and the environment with research topics including the maintenance of urban trees, equity in municipal tree planting, and human impact on bat populations in the Philippines. She is currently anAssistant Professor of Environmental Science and Studies at Depaul University, where her Lab for Urban Forestry in the Anthropocene (LUFA) focuses on how people are managing their community urban forests while facing the challenges of the Anthropocene Era.

June 2019- Burney Fischer presents at Arboriculture and Urban Forestry’s Educators Symposium and Summit, May 2019, Morton Arboretum.Summit co-chaired by SPEA alum and BUFRG collaboratorJess Vogt.

“Teaching Urban Forestry Management at a Non-Forestry School: An opportunity to expand the profession”

Presenter: Burnell C. Fischer, Clinical Professor Emeritus, IUB SPEA

Presentation slides

Presentation highlights urban forestry instruction at Indiana University's School of Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA). Students in non-forestry school programs such as environmental science, environmental sustainability, environmental management, etc., can become interested through a single urban forestry course. The student perspective is quite different from the traditional forestry school.  Students are much less interested in how to do arboricultural things (climb trees, use equipment) or think of the urban forest as discrete forest stands. Instead, they think about the urban ecosystem, how it functions as a social-ecological system and divide the city into urban patches (neighborhoods, etc.) rather than forest stands. On the other hand, forestry students understand measuring trees and forest inventory while non-forestry students need dedicated instruction and field experience. Non-forestry students appear more likely to look for urban-based volunteer opportunities, internships and full-time employment in a broad range of urban greening activities rather than just arboriculture.  They are oriented more towards urban greening non-profits and ecologically based consulting. As an instructor, I focus on a different set of topics and opportunities than at a forestry school. Case studies with non-profits, research projects for a city, ecosystem services discussions, etc., become more the norm. While traditional forestry schools have low enrollments in urban forestry and strategize to attract students, non-forestry school programs such as SPEA routinely have large class sizes (~40) taking urban forestry. Finally, in addition to directly benefiting the urban forestry profession with a new and different type of urban forester, these students will create a future a pool of knowledgeable citizen volunteers and supporters.

May 2019- Urban Ecology E555 Research Papers, Spring 2019

Research Papers

• "Urban Forest Patch Connectivity: An Assessment of Stream Corridors and Surrounding Land Cover in Bloomington"
  • Since many urban forest patches are isolated across landscapes, riparian corridors could be important avenues that help wildlife, and plants connect to other urban green spaces. This study uses a Geographical Information Systems (GIS) approach to measure how urban stream corridors contribute to forest patch connectivity in a city. The most important takeaway from this analysis is that the GIS method utilized could be implemented in other cities to assess how isolated forest patches are connected via stream corridors.
    
    
• "Urban Bird Diversity"
  
  
  • This paper compared bird diversity across three Midwestern cities (Springfield IL, Indianapolis IN, Columbus OH) using Christmas Bird Count Data to determine if there is a correlation between more green space and increased bird diversity. Because the study was limited in scope (three cities, 3 time periods and types of land cover examined), future studies should be expanded and additionally examine more closely the types of species seen.
    
    
• "Vulnerability Assessment of Bloomington’s Urban Canopy"
  
  
  • The USFS Urban Forestry Climate Change Response Framework was applied to create a vulnerability assessment and adaptation plan for the urban forest in two neighborhoods found within Bloomington, Indiana. Lessons learned from this pilot project were used to draft ideas to inform future urban forest management efforts in Bloomington related to climate change.  Based upon the analysis of the 2001 street tree inventory, tree species population diversity and size structure were assessed regarding vulnerability to climate change. Recommendations include broadening the species base, particularly beyond maple, and to consider species more adapted to future climate conditions.
    
    

Research Paper-Literature Review Hybrid

• "Urban Ecology of the Indianapolis Central Canal: Ecosystem engineering and patch dynamics"
  • The Indianapolis Canal is the only finished segment of a cross-state shipping canal proposed and built in the 1830s. This paper analyzes historical, social, and ecological conditions that are associated with the urban patches comprising the Canal areas, finding current and historic ecological differences in these patches as the Canal traverses the city. An outcome of this paper is the potential development of a framework where urban patches can be studied to assess historic, current, and future conditions.
    
    

Research Literature Reviews

• "Urban Soil Contamination and Urban Agriculture"
• "The Evolution of Citizen Science and its Application is Urban Ecology"
• "Exploring Urban Environmental Justice Initiatives for Urban Green Spaces: Combatting Environmental Gentrification"

April 2019- BUFRG researchers present at Indiana Academy of Science Spring 2019 Conference

134TH ANNUAL ACADEMY MEETING

Saturday, March 30, 2019

J.W. Marriott Hotel - Indianapolis

BRINGING TOGETHER HUNDREDS OF INDIANA SCIENTISTS FROM INDUSTRY AND ACADEMIA, AND, SCIENCE EDUCATORS, GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE SCHOOL STUDENTS, AND SCIENCE ENTHUSIASTS.

• Donovan J. Moxley, Burnell C. Fischer Indiana University-Bloomington. Historic HOLC Redlining in Indianapolis and the Legacy of Environmental Impacts: A research model for other redlined Indiana cities
• Stephanie Freeman-Day, Burnell C. Fischer, Charlie B. DeVoe, Donovan J. Moxley – Indiana University. Active Indiana municipal urban forestry programs: How are they addressing sustainability/environmental change?
  

March 2019- Urban Ecology (E555) Student Book Reviews for 2019

Each year in E555 Urban Ecology, the students select and prepare professional book reviews on urban ecology type books.  This year’s list was particularly interesting:

Food and the City: Urban Agriculture and the New Food Revolution (2012) J. Cockrall-King 

The Way of Coyote: Shared Journeys in the Urban Wilds (2018), G. Van Horn

Urban Ecology: A Natural Way to Transform Kids, Parks, Cities, and the World (2018) K. Leinbach

Darwin comes to town: how the urban jungle drives evolution (2018) M. Schilthuizen

New Slow City: Living Simply in the World's Fastest City (2014) W. Powers

Urban Ecology (2012) K. Gaston

Sites Unseen: uncovering hidden hazards in American cities (2018), S. Frickel & J.R. Elliott

Urban Forests: A natural history of trees and people in the American Cityscape (2016) J. Jonnes

Conservation for Cities: How to Plan & Build Natural Infrastructure (2015) R.I. McDonald

Emerald Cities: Urban Sustainability and Economic Development (2010) J. Fitzgerald

Copies of any book review is available from the instructor Burney Fischer at bufische@iu.edu

February 2019- BUFRG Research Update – Active Indiana municipal urban forestry programs: How are they addressing sustainability/environmental change?

Stephanie Freeman-Day, Burnell C. Fischer, Charlie B. DeVoe, Donovan J. Moxley

Both urban forest ecosystem services and threats to urban forest sustainability are well known.  Urban forest management is more than individual tree care; it is managing the whole urban forest sustainably.  Adding complexity is the concern for environmental change and identifying urban forest management strategies to both adapt and transition toward the future.  To explore how Indiana urban forestry programs are addressing sustainability and environmental change we identified all Indiana cities that had been or are currently involved at least minimally in urban forestry from a variety of sources.  These sources include IDNR CUF Program’s Tree City USA records and their grant awards (1992-2016), tree inventory consultancy projects, Indiana Arborist Association certified city arborist list, etc. We then used the list of active cities identified (74) and conducted a city-by-city website search. Collected information included tree ordinances, tree inventory reports, urban forest plans and related documents, citywide plans, etc. We downloaded each document to conduct a keyword analysis, identifying cities addressing urban forest sustainability and/or environmental change.  Prominent keywords were diversity (species and age), monitor, stormwater, pests, sustainability and climate. We found 16 city urban forestry programs that are beginning to address sustainability/environmental change. Lead cities are contracting inventories with resultant reports and management plans that include monitoring and taking action around tree species and size diversity and assessing for urban forest environmental change impacts. Additionally, they are realizing the benefits trees have in reducing stormwater and heat island effects. We also identified cities on the verge of addressing urban forest sustainability/environmental change. Clearly, in the near future Indiana will have a group of model urban forestry programs for addressing sustainability/environmental change.   

JANUARY 2019  Fischer offers Urban Ecology elective for graduate students at IUB SPEA

In spring 2019, Burney Fischer will again lead E555 Urban Ecology, a readings and discussion course for 12 master students.  This year’s class is built around the framework of urban ecology “in, of and for the city” with each driving about a third of the course content.  A set of topics responding to overarching course themes are selected by the class and then student teams locate peer-reviewed and other articles, which is the basis for weekly discussions.  A professional book or blog review and a research paper are products developed by individual students during the semester. These types of student projects have resulted in a presentation at the Ecological Society Conference, a poster presentation at a campus symposium conducted by IUB Integrated Program for the Environment, two separate blog postings and paper presentation for the Indiana Academy of Science Conference.