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Growing Canopy on a College Campus: Understanding Urban Forest Change through Archival Records and Aerial Photography

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Abstract

Many municipalities are setting ambitious tree canopy cover goals to increase the extent of their urban forests. A historical perspective on urban forest development can help cities strategize how to establish and achieve appropriate tree cover targets. To understand how long-term urban forest change occurs, we examined the history of trees on an urban college campus: the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA. Using a mixed methods approach, including qualitative assessments of archival records (1870–2017), complemented by quantitative analysis of tree cover from aerial imagery (1970–2012), our analysis revealed drastic canopy cover increase in the late 20th and early 21st centuries along with the principle mechanisms of that change. We organized the historical narrative into periods reflecting campus planting actions and management approaches; these periods are also connected to broader urban greening and city planning movements, such as City Beautiful and urban sustainability. University faculty in botany, landscape architecture, and urban design contributed to the design of campus green spaces, developed comprehensive landscape plans, and advocated for campus trees. A 1977 Landscape Development Plan was particularly influential, setting forth design principles and planting recommendations that enabled the dramatic canopy cover gains we observed, and continue to guide landscape management today. Our results indicate that increasing urban tree cover requires generational time scales and systematic management coupled with a clear urban design vision and long-term commitments. With the campus as a microcosm of broader trends in urban forest development, we conclude with a discussion of implications for municipal tree cover planning.

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Acknowledgements

At Penn, we thank D Garofalo and D Hollenberg of FRES for supporting this research and funding JP Fristensky and CC Welsh. JP Fristensky was also sponsored by the US Forest Service Philadelphia Field Station. We thank MF Lloyd, TH Horning, JM Duffin, and JJ Ahern for guiding us through the campus archives. We thank G McNichol from the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission for sharing aerial photography. Helpful comments on earlier versions of the manuscript were provided by R Weller, MF Lloyd, S Willig, H Pearsall, and two anonymous reviewers.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station, Philadelphia Research Station, 100 N. 20th Street, Suite 205, Philadelphia, PA, 19103, USA

    Lara A. Roman & Jason P. Fristensky

  2. Berger Partnership, 1721 8th Ave North, Seattle, WA, 98109, USA

    Jason P. Fristensky

  3. Dept. of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 402 Hills North, 111 Thatcher Road, Amherst, MA, 01003, USA

    Theodore S. Eisenman

  4. USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station, 5 Moon Library, SUNY-ESF, 1 Forestry Drive, Syracuse, NY, 13210, USA

    Eric J. Greenfield

  5. Facilities & Real Estate Services, University of Pennsylvania, 3101 Walnut St., Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA

    Robert E. Lundgren, Chloe E. Cerwinka & Caitlin C. Welsh

  6. Wagner Free Institute of Science, 1700 West Montgomery Avenue, Philadelphia, PA, 19121, USA

    David A. Hewitt

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  1. Lara A. Roman
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  2. Jason P. Fristensky
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  3. Theodore S. Eisenman
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  4. Eric J. Greenfield
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  8. Caitlin C. Welsh
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Correspondence to Lara A. Roman.

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Roman, L.A., Fristensky, J.P., Eisenman, T.S. et al. Growing Canopy on a College Campus: Understanding Urban Forest Change through Archival Records and Aerial Photography. Environmental Management 60, 1042–1061 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-017-0934-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-017-0934-0

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