The UFMP is an essential tool to help protect and enhance the Town’s publicly owned urban forest. An UFMP is intended to: identify the Town’s goals for priorities and managing its trees and forests on Town owned land or in rights of way and easements, describe the status of the Town’s urban forest resources and its management program, and document the methods, resources and personnel that will be used to achieve these goals. The UFMP will be an integral component of the Urban Forestry program. The results will help create a better understanding of the urban forest composition, structure, and tree maintenance needs; plan for short-term and long-term resource allocation; develop risk management strategies; and enable the Town to promote the economic, environmental, and social benefits the trees provide the community. To date, the Town has accomplished the following toward protecting and understanding the canopy: • Implementation of a tree ordinance assigning authority over public trees. • Designation of a TreeCity USA for 46 years. • Ongoing public tree assessment. • 1:1 replacement of removed street trees. • Maintain a town-wide canopy coverage of at least 40%. • Up to date tree inventory of all 20,000 street trees.
