This project will support proactive and systematic management, maintenance, and monitoring of the City’s Urban Forest by completing a citywide Tree Inventory, Level 2 Assessment of each tree, identifying unhealthy and hazardous trees for removal, a LiDAR Analysis, Training in Urban Forestry, Community Outreach, and a Final Report that advances the health and wellness of the City’s Urban Forests and complies with the objectives contained within the United States Department of Agriculture’s Ten-Year Urban Forestry Action Plan. This project will also contribute to the goals of the Federal Government’s Justice40 Executive Order and the State of California’s Forest Action Plan. As a component of this project, the needs of the Urban Forest will be identified citywide with additional focus on the heat impacts in disadvantaged communities. Almost fifty percent of the City (by area) is comprised of neighborhoods that are designated as disadvantaged. In order to maximize the positive impacts of an Urban Forest for disadvantaged communities, that includes health, social, ecological, and economic benefits, an accurate citywide Tree Inventory and LiDAR Analysis are necessary to determine the needs of the City’s Urban Forest. There are only 3 out of 39 census tracts in the City of Oxnard that are not classified as disadvantaged. However, those 3 census tracts also provide recreation opportunities for the residents from the disadvantaged communities at the Ololkoy Beach Park, the Channel Islands Harbor area, and Via Marina Park. The disadvantaged census tracks are susceptible to extreme heat impacts, due to low tree canopy cover. The Public Health Institute conducted an Urban Heat Monitoring project in 2021 that focused on 20 parks within the City of Oxnard. The study’s results indicate that the low volume of tree canopies account for the temperature extremes within these parks. However, more information is necessary to understand the potential citywide impacts and to determine the long-term goals for increasing the tree canopy coverage. Therefore, a citywide LiDAR Analysis of the tree canopy is necessary. This project requires a Communications Plan with a City hosted webpage and social media outlets to provide information to the community about this project, the source of funding, the goals and objectives of the funding, and the status of the project. This project will also include community engagement efforts with involvement from the disadvantaged communities and youth within the City of Oxnard.
