Adjusted Population: is the remainder of the number of people living within a county subdivision that are not living within selected places or county that are not living within incorporated places (see Appendix B).
Intent
Many local UCF programs began through the efforts of local community groups, and these groups often serve as a catalyst to encourage active local urban forest resource management for the long term. This performance element aims to ensure that community residents and program stakeholders are informed, educated, and engaged in the development and implementation of a sound community forestry program at the local level.
Definition
Advisory Groups: Organizations that are formalized or chartered (i.e., organizations established by the local government) to advise (during the reporting year) on the establishment, conservation, protection, and maintenance of urban and community trees and forests.
Advocacy Groups: Non-governmental organizations active in the community that advocate or act for the establishment, conservation, protection, and maintenance of urban and community trees and forests during the year.
Examples (Examples include but are not limited to items on this list. Anything counted must meet the definition above.):
Assistance: see State Assistance.
Community: see Place, County Subdivision and County.
County: The primary legal division of every state except Alaska and Louisiana. A number of geographic entities are not legally designated as a county, but are recognized by the Census Bureau as equivalent to a county for data presentation purposes. These include the boroughs, city and boroughs, municipality, and census areas in Alaska; parishes in Louisiana; and cities that are independent of any county (independent cities) in Maryland, Missouri, Nevada, and Virginia. Because it contains no primary legal divisions, the Census Bureau treats the District of Columbia as equivalent to a county (as well as equivalent to a state) for data presentation purposes (www.census.gov).
County Subdivision: A legal or statistical division of a county recognized by the Census Bureau and States for data presentation purposes. Related terms: borough, census county division, census subarea, city, legal entity, minor civil division, statistical entity, town, township, unorganized territory, and village (www.cenus.gov).
Credibility Through Accountability: is the process used to develop the new UCF performance measures.
CSD: see County Subdivision.
CTA: see Credibility Through Accountability.
Demand: The units of service or product expected to be requested or required by customers, or the customer base eligible for services. These units must be expressed as a number (CTA Business Plan Terminology).
Developing Community: see Developing Programs
Developing Programs: have between one and three of the following: 1. active urban & community tree and forest management plans developed from professionally-based resource assessments/inventories; 2. employ or retain through written agreement the services of professional forestry staff; 3. local/statewide ordinances or policies that focus on planting, protecting, and maintaining their urban and community trees and forests; or 4. local advocacy/ advisory organizations, such as, active tree boards, commissions, or non-profit organizations that are formalized or chartered to advise and/or advocate for the planting, protection, and maintenance of urban and community trees and forests; and was provided state assistance in the reporting fiscal year.
Documentation: A state’s records documenting state assistance and a community’s attainment of performance measures must be understandable and accessible when requested for state or regional program reviews. Each state will work with their federal Regional Program Manager to ensure that their documentation meets program review requirements.
Efficiency: The cost or expenditure per unit of output. Expressed as dollar ($) cost per output (CTA Business Plan Terminology).
Family of Measures: The program performance measures used to describe annual accomplishments and provide long-term trends for decision making; these include program specific Outcome, Output, Demand and Efficiency measures and, also, describe the program’s direct and indirect ties to the agency’s national strategic plan measures.
Federal Funding: see Federal (USFS) Funding to States.
Federal (USFS) Funding to States: is the dollar ($) amount of federal funding distributed to each state for their UCF Program as part of their state grant for the current fiscal year. This amount does not include supplemental funding for projects or carryover funding from previous fiscal years added to the state grant.
Fiscal Year: U.S. government's fiscal year that begins on October 1 of the previous calendar year and ends on September 30 of the year with which it is numbered (en.wikipedia.org).
FIPS: Federal Information Processing Standard(s) - A set of numeric and/or alphabetic codes issued by the National Institute of Standards and Technology to ensure uniform identification of geographic entities (and other electronic data) throughout all federal government agencies. FIPS codes exist for states, counties, metropolitan areas, Congressional districts, named populated and other locational entities (such as places, county subdivisions, and American Indian and Alaska Native areas), and geopolitical entities of the world.
Green Stormwater Infrastructure Assistance:
Intent
People are safer in communities where stormwater runoff is mitigated. Communities with significant impervious area have higher rates of stormwater runoff which can threaten human health and safety. Unmitigated stormwater runoff can result in polluted streams, increased flooding, and costly expenditures on conventional infrastructure. Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI) helps communities to protect, restore, or mimic the natural water cycle by allowing more water to infiltrate into the ground and less stormwater to runoff.
State Forestry Agencies strategically deliver technical assistance to communities through U.S. Forest Service State and Private Forestry (S&PF) investments to implement GSI mitigation strategies, so that communities that most need it build the capacity to protect water quality, water supply, reduce flooding, and reduce public expenditures.
Focused GSI assistance should lead cities to stormwater reduction efforts that make a measurable and meaningful impact to reducing stormwater, especially in areas within cities where the need is greatest.
Definition
GSI assistance can be financial or technical, including funds distributed through S&PF grants to communities for projects that have GSI benefits, S&PF funded technical assistance to communities where GSI is discussed as a management option, S&PF funded coordination with other organizations involved in GSI, and S&PF funded planning activities in communities that assess canopy cover or impervious surfaces and propose/design solutions.
Examples (Examples include but are not limited to items on this list. Anything counted must meet the definition above.)
Context
The USFS Urban & Community Forestry program defines Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI) as strategically planned and managed networks of natural lands, working landscapes and other open spaces that conserve ecosystem values and functions and provide associated benefits to human populations. The US Environmental Protection Agency defines GSI through Section 502 of the Clean Water Act as "...the range of measures that use plant or soil systems, permeable pavement or other permeable surfaces or substrates, stormwater harvest and reuse, or landscaping to store, infiltrate, or evapotranspirate stormwater and reduce flows to sewer systems or to surface waters."
GSI is a cost-effective, resilient approach to managing wet weather impacts that provides many community benefits. While single-purpose gray stormwater infrastructure—conventional piped drainage and water treatment systems—is designed to move urban stormwater away from the built environment, GSI reduces and treats stormwater at its source while delivering environmental, social, and economic benefits.
Stormwater runoff is a major cause of water pollution in urban areas. When rain falls on our roofs, streets, and parking lots in cities and their suburbs, the water cannot soak into the ground as it should. Stormwater drains through gutters, storm sewers, and other engineered collection systems and is discharged into nearby water bodies. The stormwater runoff carries trash, bacteria, heavy metals, and other pollutants from the urban landscape. Higher flows resulting from heavy rains also can cause erosion and flooding in urban streams, damaging habitat, property, and infrastructure.
When rain falls in natural, undeveloped areas, the water is absorbed and filtered by soil and plants. Stormwater runoff is cleaner and less of a problem. GSI uses vegetation, soils, and other elements and practices to restore some of the natural processes required to manage water and create healthier urban environments. At the city or county scale, GSI is a patchwork of natural areas that provides habitat, flood protection, cleaner air, and cleaner water. At the neighborhood or site scale, stormwater management systems that mimic nature soak up and store water.
GSI: Green Stormwater Infrastructure
GSI Assistance: see Green Stormwater Infrastructure Assistance
Hypertext: is a special type of database system where objects (e.g. text, pictures, music and programs) may be linked together. You may use the links to navigate from object to object (www.webopedia.com).
Landscape Scale Restoration Program Assistance (LSR Assistance): is State Assistance given in support of a USDA Forest Service, competitively funded, Landscape Scale Restoration project.
Link: is a reference to another document in hypertext systems like the World Wide Web. They allow you to navigate to new documents by clicking on them (www.webopedia.com).
LSAD: Legal/Statistical Area Description (www.census.gov).
LSR: Landscape Scape Restoration Program
LSR Assistance: see Landscape Scale Restoration Program Assistance
Intent
Developing, using, and periodically updating a management plan demonstrates a community’s commitment to the comprehensive management of its community tree and forest resources.
Definition
A detailed document or set of documents that identify and prioritize action items based on professionally-based, relevant inventories and/or resource assessments, that outline the future management of the community’s trees and forests. At a minimum, the plan must address public trees. The plan must be current and actively used within the past five years by the community to guide management decisions and/or resource allocation and updated as needed to incorporate new information.
A plan for trees in a portion of the community, as long as it includes a written explanation of why there is a focus on that area (i.e., the importance of that space to the community) and action items regarding the establishment, protection, conservation, and maintenance of public trees.
Management plans for forested tracts may be counted if they meet the above and the forest meets all the following criteria:
Examples (Examples include but are not limited to items on this list. Anything counted must meet the definition above.)
Management Plan Terms
Inventories and/or Resource Assessments: A document, set of documents, or database containing specific, standardized information recorded for individual trees or groups of trees in an identified area of the community. Data must be useful to inform management decisions and be able to be compared over time. Data may also contain information on other natural features and the built environment needed for tree management and planning. Sample size must be statistically appropriate to draw accurate conclusions for management recommendations.
Examples (Examples include but are not limited to items on this list. Anything counted must meet the definition above.)
Professionally-based: Tree inventories and/or resource assessments developed by, or developed and conducted under the guidance of, professional staff (as defined herein) with experience in conducting inventories and/or assessments. No written agreement is required between the community and professional staff for this purpose. The inventories and assessments must be conducted using industry-standard data collection, data analysis, and data presentation techniques and protocols. Volunteers involved in the inventories and assessments must be trained and proficient in the industry- standard protocols and techniques.
Relevant: Applicable within the current local conditions, circumstances, and forest population dynamics, ideally within five years if there has been no major disturbance (under the discretion of the State Coordinator).
Managing Community: see Managing Programs
Managing Programs: have 1) active urban and community tree and forest management plans developed from professionally-based resource assessments/inventories; 2) employ or retain through written agreement the services of professional forestry staff; 3) adopted local/statewide ordinances or policies that focus on planting, protecting, and maintaining their urban and community trees and forests; and 4) have local advocacy/ advisory groups, such as, active tree boards, commissions, or non-profit organizations that are formalized or chartered to advise and/or advocate for the planting, protection, and maintenance of urban and community trees and forests. State assistance in the reporting fiscal year is not required for a community to have a managing program.
Master List: communities that participate or have the potential to participate in the UCF Program. Also referred to as "selected" communities.
Menu: a list of displayed options.
Intent:
Tree ordinances guide the community in the proper care, establishment, conservation, and protection of community trees and forests. These ordinances must be codified, followed, and routinely enforced by some mechanism within the community. The definition and examples below recognize the fact that effective public policies are not always contained in a single “Tree Ordinance.”
Definition:
Local, community-wide laws that identify who has the responsibility for oversight of urban and community forestry activities and that direct the use of best management practices for establishment, conservation, protection, and/or maintenance of urban and community trees and forests. At a minimum, ordinance clauses must address public trees.
Examples (Examples include but are not limited to items on this list. Anything counted must meet the definition above.):
Organization: The hierarchical structure of states, regions and national office responsible for the implementation and oversight of the USDA Forest Service Urban and Community Forestry Program.
Organization Breadcrumb: is a series of hypertext links that are displayed below the CARS header that identifies the active organization (i.e. that which the displayed information pertains to) and allows you to navigate higher levels in the organizational hierarchy.
Outcome: The benefit or impact that the customer experiences as a consequence of receiving the services or products. An outcome is expressed as a percentage (%), rate or ratio (CTA Business Plan Terminology).
Output: The units of service or product delivered to customers, or the number of customers served. An output is expressed as a number (CTA Business Plan Terminology).
Percent Urban Area: is the percentage of the geographic area that falls within an urbanized area (UA) or urban cluster (UC). A Census place or county subdivision may contain both urban and rural territory.
Percent Urban Population: is the percentage of the Census place or county subdivision population living within an urbanized area (UA) or urban cluster (UC).
Place: a concentration of population either legally bounded as an incorporated place or delineated for statistical presentation purposes as a census designated place (www.census.gov).
Portlet: is one of the smaller windows that are displayed within the CARS graphical user interface that contains a particular theme of information. Portlets always contains a header that describes their content.
Professional Forestry Staff: see Professional Staff.
Intent:
Communities employ knowledgeable, skilled professionals who can effectively inform UCF management decisions. Professional staff members have education, training, and experience in the fields of urban forestry, forestry, arboriculture, and/or horticulture. This performance element is intended to ensure that the person with the primary responsibility for program management has the training and experience to properly and professionally manage the urban forest resource and advance the community’s UCF program.
Definition:
Individuals who have one or more of the following credentials, and who the community directly employs or retains through a written agreement to advise and/or assist in the comprehensive development or management of their urban and community forestry program (not just a project or for one aspect like tree removal): 1) a degree in urban forestry or a closely related field (e.g., forestry, arboriculture, horticulture), 2) International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) Certified Arborist, American Society of Consulting Arborists Registered Arborist, Society of American Foresters Certified Forester, or equivalent State or professional credential, and/or 3) at least 3 years of experience practicing arboriculture or urban forestry according to industry standards and urban forestry best management practices.
Examples (Examples include but are not limited to items on this list. Anything counted must meet the definition above.):
Quick Links Menu: is a portlet that is usually displayed at the top of the right column that allows users to quickly accomplish specific tasks or to navigate to certain menus.
Region: is the organization level that comprises a collection of states and is a subdivision of agency. This includes Region, and Institute.
Rural: all territory, population, and housing units located outside of urbanized areas and urban clusters. Because "urban" and "rural" are delineated independent of any geographic entity except census block, these classifications may cut across all other geographic entities; for example, there is generally both urban and rural territory within both metropolitan and non metropolitan areas.
Selected Community: is a place, county subdivision or county that already participates or has the potential to participate in the UCF Program.
Selected County: is a county that already participates or has the potential to participate in the UCF Program. Within CARS, this represents all of the people that are living within the county that do not live within incorporated places or within selected, unincorporated places (see Appendix B).
Selected County Subdivision: is a county subdivision that already participates or has the potential to participate in the UCF Program. Within CARS, this represents all of the people that are living within the county subdivision that do not live within selected places (see Appendix B).
Selected Place: is a place that already participates or has the potential to participate in the UCF Program.
State: States are the primary governmental divisions of the United States. The District of Columbia is treated as a statistical equivalent of a state for data presentation purposes. The U.S. Census Bureau also treats a number of entities that are not legal divisions of the United States as statistically equivalent to a state: American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands of the United States.
Intent:
This measure aims to track which communities have been helped by States to improve their local urban and community forestry programs.
Definition:
Technical, educational, and/or financial resources provided to a community by the State forestry agency or other program partner (if the partner has a written agreement with the State forestry agency). Assistance must contribute to a local community’s ability to develop or maintain its own self-sustaining UCF program and/or have a positive impact on a local community’s ability to develop or maintain healthy, safe, and resilient urban and community forests.
Examples (Examples include but are not limited to items on this list. Anything counted must meet the definition above.):
Assistance includes, but is not limited to: 1) providing expertise and resources to help communities develop and/or implement inventories, resource assessments, and/or management plans; 2) assisting in the hiring/contracting of a professional UCF staff position in a community; 3) providing expertise and guidance in ordinance development and review; and/or 4) assisting with the establishment of an advocacy or advisory group or providing ongoing consultation with an existing organization to improve its effectiveness. Additional examples include:
Status: identifies the stage of the annual accomplishment report. Status is system assigned based on user actions. The following is a list of possible statuses: In Progress, Under Regional Review, Under National Review, and Approved.
Total Population: is the number of people living within an identified geographic area.
UCF: Urban and Community Forestry.
Urban: “Urban” includes all territory, population, and housing units in urbanized areas and urban clusters (www.census.gov).
Urban and Community Forestry (UCF) Activities: The establishment, conservation, protection, and maintenance of trees and forests in communities and urban areas.
Urban and Community Forestry Program (capital “P”): A cooperative program of the U.S. Forest Service, State forestry agencies, and other organizations that focuses on the stewardship of trees and forests in communities and urban areas.
Urbanized Area: is a densely settled area with at least 500 people per square mile that has a census population of at least 50,000 (www.census.gov).
Urban Cluster: is a densely settled area with at least 500 people per square mile that has a census population of 2,500 to 49,999 (www.census.gov).
Intent:
This measure aims to estimate volunteer participation that can be supported by some form of written documentation and is linked to State and/or Federal assistance (financial, technical, and/or educational).
Definition:
The number of hours volunteers spent leading, assisting with, or otherwise participating in an activity or educational event supported by the Urban and Community Forestry Program. A volunteer is someone who did not receive financial compensation explicitly for participating in the activity or event.
Examples (Examples include but are not limited to items on this list. Anything counted must meet the definition above.):