Ranking America’s urban forests

Fayetteville, AR – Source: accessfayetteville.org

American Forests recently announced its ten best cities for urban forests for 2013. The top ten, out of the  50 largest cities in the nation are listed in alphabetical order below (weblinks to each winner’s results are provided):

• Austin
• Charlotte
• Denver
• Milwaukee
• Minneapolis
• New York City
• Portland
• Sacramento
• Seattle
• Washington, DC

As can be seen from the list, the top ten are fairly well-dispersed geographically around the country with two from the Northeast, two from the Great Lakes, two from the South, one from the Rocky Mountains, and three from the West Coast.

Minneapolis’ urban tree canopy map – Source: cityoflakes.maps.arcgis.com

The six primary criteria utilized by American Forests for determining its ten best cities for urban forests are listed below. More detailed information for each city in the top ten is provided on via a weblink to the pdf file for each city listed above. Congratulations to each of the recipient cities.

“Civic engagement in maintaining the urban forest;

Urban forest strategies and city greening to address city infrastructure challenges;

Accessibility of urban forest and greenspaces to the public;

Overall health and condition of the city’s urban forest;

Documented knowledge about its urban forests; and
Urban forest management plans and management activities.”