Factsheet: Urban forest planning

This factsheet explains why developing an urban forest plan to manage and protect tree canopies is important for their long-term success. It provides guidance on creating, establishing and maintaining an urban forest plan tailored to your community’s needs and priorities.  

This factsheet was created to support small and rural communities who are just developing their urban forestry approaches and content might be helpful for municipal staff working in various departments such as public works, recreation or public health services. 

Why does urban forest planning matter? 

Urban forestry is the sustained planning, planting, protection, maintenance and care of trees, forests, greenspace, and related resources in and around communities to create economic, environmental, social and public health benefits. Urban forestry practices are relevant for communities of any size. The practices are similar for rural, small, medium and large communities—anywhere people live and interact with trees or forested areas, including where people manage social, economic and environmental policies and programs.  

Trees take decades to mature and can live for centuries. Over their lifetimes, trees will encounter challenges and changing environments. Decisions made today about planting, protection and management will have lasting effects for generations. An urban forest plan can anticipate challenges and guide local governments towards achieving a more resilient urban forest that benefits the entire community. A well-crafted urban forest plan establishes a long-term vision supported by clear goals, measurable targets, timelines, responsibilities and resource needs for implementation. 

The journey to a healthy and resilient urban forest starts with a plan. 

Key components of an urban forest plan 

Urban forest plans set goals for management and guide professionals on how to plant, protect and maintain the urban forest proactively, ensuring it delivers maximum benefits to the community and wildlife. A well-crafted urban forest plan should include: 

• a collective vision for the urban forest 
• an assessment of the current state of the urban forest 
• a strategic framework consisting of goals, objectives and targets to help fulfill the vision 
• an implementation plan that outlines detailed actions and steps with specific timelines (months or dates) and assigned responsibilities 
• a monitoring plan with a system to track progress and revise the plan if needed 

Setting the context for your urban forest plan

Understanding the context of your community’s urban forest is essential for developing a plan that aligns with its unique characteristics and needs. The planning process should consider your community’s demographics and development patterns, the resources it has in place to manage the urban forest, the current urban forest management program (if one exists), and emerging opportunities and challenges.  

Consider which staff and departments (such as planning or public works) might be involved in managing the urban forest and invite them to participate in the planning process. It is also important to identify and engage interested stakeholders, including equity-deserving groups and rights holders, to ensure that planning efforts are inclusive and responsive to community needs. 

Here are some guiding questions you can ask to better understand the context of your community’s urban forest: 

• What is your community like? For example, is it vulnerable to extreme weather events such as floods and heat waves? Do you foresee any changes that will impact the planning or management of the urban forest? 
• How is your urban forest managed currently? Do you have an inventory of the trees in your community? 
• What are the opportunities and challenges related to urban forest management in the next 10, 20 and 50 years? 
• How is the urban forest recognized among community members and other stakeholders or rights holders? What about your Council and senior management? 
• Are all the relevant and interested parties engaged, including equity-deserving groups who most need to benefit from the urban forest? 
• What do the various parties hope to address through the urban forest planning process? 
• Do you have the appropriate data to help you understand the current state of your community’s urban forest and possible future changes? 
• Do you have adequate levels of staffing and funding to support the planning and implementation of urban forestry programs? 
• Does your community have people with the right expertise needed in urban forest planning and management? 

Getting started on an urban forest plan

Below are some guiding steps that can help your community get started on creating an urban forest plan. Depending on the work your community has done to date, you may choose to skip or rearrange some of these steps.  

1. What do you already have? 

Understand the current landscape for urban forest management: 

• “Plan to plan” by organizing resources and seeking senior management and Council support for the development of an urban forest plan. 
• Create or update your community’s tree inventory to ensure you have an accurate picture of the current state and health of your urban forest. 
• Review relevant policies and practices to understand the current policy framework and practices around urban forest management.
• Identify opportunities and gaps in current policies and practices. 

2. What do you want? 

Establish a long-term vision, goals and targets in collaboration with the community: 

• Identify and engage stakeholders or rights holders; learn about their values, concerns and ideas for trees in the community. 
• Develop a long-term vision and supporting goals based on what you learned in previous steps. 
• Develop measurable targets (such as tree canopy or crown volume targets). 

3. How do you get there? 

Outline your plan’s strategies and detailed actions based on the vision, goals and targets established in previous steps: 

• Develop a list of actions that would help achieve your vision, goals and targets.
• Invite community stakeholders and/or rights holders to review, assess and prioritize the actions based on their values and concerns. 
• Allocate resources, assign responsibilities and specify timelines for each action to develop a comprehensive implementation framework. 

4. How do you stay on track? 

Develop a monitoring plan to track and evaluate progress and to support adaptive management: 

• Identify what you need to monitor and evaluate to ensure progress is being made on implementation and outcomes. 
• Develop a monitoring system to track implementation progress, evaluate actions against goals and targets, and share results publicly on a regular basis. 
• If satisfactory progress has not been made, investigate the causes and adjust the plan as necessary. 

You have a plan, now what? 

If your community has developed an urban forest plan, there are several steps you can take to further support the plan’s implementation: 

• Develop a planting master plan to guide planting along streets, in parks and other community properties, aligning with the vision, goals and targets set forth in your urban forest plan. 
• Develop or update regulatory tools related to urban forest protection and management (see Metro Vancouver’s Tree Regulations Toolkit for examples), including:  
  • tools that regulate how trees are dealt with (e.g., tree bylaws, environmental development permit areas and covenants) 
  • tools that regulate land use and tree retention, including zoning bylaws and subdivision bylaws 
• Develop or update an urban forest asset management plan to integrate the urban forest into conventional asset management (see the City of Vaughan’s Asset Management Plan for Urban Forestry for examples).

Opportunities to involve the community  

Community involvement in urban forest planning is vital for raising awareness, gaining support and fostering collaboration. Community input plays a vital role in shaping key directions and priorities in the planning process, ensuring that urban forest plans and strategies reflect the community’s diverse needs and values. 

Prioritizing Reconciliation and engaging with Indigenous Peoples on urban forest planning and management is equally important to recognize and respect Indigenous rights. To achieve this, communities can: 

• Identify Indigenous Peoples: Use available resources and information to identify Indigenous communities whose rights may be affected by the local government’s urban forest management activities. 
• Acknowledge legal and traditional rights: Recognize Treaties and frameworks of legal, customary and traditional rights, including the Calls to Action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. 
• Involve Indigenous leaders and Knowledge Keepers: Seek guidance from Indigenous leaders, Knowledge Keepers, Elders and Youth to advise on urban forest planning and stewardship from an Indigenous lens. 

Local governments can prioritize inclusive community engagement, establish diverse partnerships, adhere to equitable protocols and target programming to ensure that forests and trees are planted, preserved and protected in all neighbourhoods regardless of social, ethnic or economic demographics.  

Engagement can occur at different stages of the planning process, including before the plan is developed to gather input on community values, or after drafting the plan to ensure it aligns with community priorities and concerns.  

Various engagement methods can be utilized, including:  

• questionnaires and surveys to collect broad input from community members 
• open houses and workshops to facilitate in-depth discussions and interactive sessions 
• online tools to provide accessible platforms for community members to contribute their perspectives and expertise. 

Some resources that can help with these steps include: 

• Future Cities Canada and Evergreen’s Civic–Indigenous Placekeeping and Partnership Building Toolkit 
• Climate Caucus’s Community Engagement Handbook for local elected officials 

Next steps

Here are additional resources that can help you get started with urban forest planning: 

• Vibrant Cities Lab, Planning: Best Practices in Urban Forestry 
• Inland Urban Forest Council with support from CAL FIRE, U.S. Forest Service and California Urban Forest Council, Urban Forest Management Plan Toolkit 
• Tree Canada, Compendium of Best Urban Forest Management Practices: Chapter 4. Strategic and Operational Management Planning 

This resource was created in partnership by Tree Canada and FCM’s Green Municipal Fund for the Growing Canada’s Community Canopies initiative, which is delivered by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and funded by the Government of Canada.