News | Sustainable Future Scenarios

December 31, 2015

March 9th, 2016

8:00 AM – 5:00 PM

AE England Building

ASU Downtown Campus

Find the presentations from this event here.

Urban forestry is critical for providing access to nature and ecosystems services to the dense living populations within Arizona urban areas. A well-established urban forest provides clean air, wildlife habitat, and cooling effects while promoting a sense of place and community in an area. Maintaining a cohesive urban forest enhances a community, more fully integrating it into nature. Arizona State University’s Sustainable Cities Network is hosting the second Regional Tree and Shade Summit in March 2016. Held at ASU Downtown’s AE England Building, this one day event will provide public, private, and nonprofit organizations with the tools, strategies, and best practices for urban forestry management in the arid southwest.

The Summit is free to attend and is open to municipal, private and nonprofit sector professionals and active citizens. It is being hosted in partnership with ASU’s Sustainable Cities Network and the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability, the cities of Avondale, Mesa, and Phoenix, Downtown Phoenix, Inc., the Arizona State Forestry Division, and USDA Forest Service. Funds for this project were provided by the Urban and Community Forestry Financial Assistance Program administered through Arizona State Forestry – Urban and Community Forestry Program, and the USDA Forest Service.

Keynote Speaker - Dr. Greg McPherson

Dr. Greg McPherson is a Research Forester with the USDA Forest Service's Pacific Southwest Research Station located in Davis, CA, Greg grew up under a canopy of American elm trees in Howell, Michigan. Despite attempts to save the trees, all were lost to Dutch elm disease, and having felt the sting of that loss he became a green accountant, developing new methods and tools for quantifying the value of nature's benefits from city trees. He works with a team of scientists to measure and model effects of trees on energy use, urban heat islands, air pollutant uptake, carbon sequestration, and rainfall interception. Their research is helping justify investments in urban forest planning and management. In 2000, Greg received the International Society of Arboriculture's L.C. Chadwick Award for Research. Greg was a co-founder and Chair of the Tree Growth and Longevity Working Group and serves on the California Urban Forest Advisory Council. He attended University of Michigan (BGS), Utah State University (Masters in Landscape Architecture), and SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (Ph.D. Forestry).

Additional Speakers

Brad Lancaster is a dynamic teacher, consultant, and designer of regenerative systems that sustainably enhance local resources and our global potential. He maintains the www.harvestingrainwater.com website, filled with a wealth of information learned from being a Watershed Specialist. His hometown projects have included working with the City of Tucson and other municipalities to legalize, incentivize, and provide guidance on water-harvesting systems, demonstration sites, and policy. Brad’s aim is always to boost communities’ true health and wealth by using simple overlapping strategies to augment the region’s hydrology, ecosystems, and economies—living systems upon which we depend.

Kieran Sikdar is a Water Resources Engineer with Watershed Management Group. He combines his experience as a Civil Engineer (MS), Certified Floodplain Manager, and Certified Water Harvesting Practitioner with over 10 years of experience in cost benefit analysis, green infrastructure/low impact development design, watershed restoration, and permaculture design. His focus is to implement water-harvesting practices on a broad scale as critical flood mitigation and stormwater infrastructure to shade and beautify our communities while repairing our urban watersheds.