Some traveled near, some far
Future generations calling us on
Like the wind in the sails of a ship in a storm
Slowly we are beginning to form
A crew
That can hold true
Hold together
Whatever the changing weather
Be collectively clever
And sail the driving forces
Set new courses
That chart our hopes for the future
That cannot be predicted by any computer!

Here are some links to allow you to stay connected to, and learning with, Tim and The Outside team, including their podcast episode "Outside Conversations with Zaid Hassan - The maturing practice of complexity,” and an opportunity to practice directly with Tim and his business partner, Tuesday Ryan-Hart, through their 4-month virtual leadership cohort, "Activating Equitable + Enduring Change." This is a practical training for leaders who want to learn how to implement big change and keep equity on the table.

Capturing atmospheric carbon into urban landscapes—trees, shrubs, turf, riparian zones—can contribute to both climate stabilization and significantly buffer communities from rapidly escalating climate change extremes. To do so effectively, however, we need new types of tools that can analyze data to project where and how much carbon we can capture and what critical life support services—reducing extreme heat, absorbing stormwater, reducing air pollution—this carbon drawdown can achieve. In 2020 and 2021, UDI, the Trust for Public Land, and other partners have been building a new urban lands carbon management analysis and decision support tool that can assist both local governments and community-based organizations in designing and assessing such actions.

As a signatory to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the United States has been reporting an economy-wide Inventory of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and removals since the mid-1990s (US EPA 2020). Forest land, harvested wood products (HWPs), and urban trees within the land sector collectively represent the largest net carbon (C) sink in the United States, offsetting more than 11 percent of total GHG emissions annually (US EPA 2020). Estimates of GHG emissions and removals are compiled by U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service researchers and are based primarily on National Forest Inventory (NFI) data collected and maintained by the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program within the USDA Forest Service.

Collaboration has been the key to success for urban forest management in Colorado, not only collaboration amongst agencies at all levels of government but also in engaging industry allies, coordinating education and outreach efforts and in fostering community support.

This detailed diagram by the USGS describes where water is on Earth and how it moves.

Moving public and stakeholder audiences from simple awareness of climate change stressors in their communities to action on effective interventions to reduce those stressors relies on robust, detailed data as well as engaged residents and policymakers. This chapter describes a participatory urban climate knowledge-to-action (PUCKA) framework that both engages community scientists in an accepted methodology and provides practitioners and public stakeholders with detailed information about a particularly nefarious climate stressor: extreme urban heat.

With support from the J.M. Kaplan Fund, NCS spent six months working with close to 40 local organizations and jurisdictions in the Colorado Front Range/Denver-Metro area to formulate a detailed, equity-centered urban forestry scale-up strategy. This report provides extensive details on the strategies developed through this broad coalition including equity-based workforce development, community-centered engagement strategies, forestry project scoping and scaling, and an applied urban forestry research approach.

The Climate Safe Neighborhoods partnership brings together thirteen Groundwork Trusts to explore the relationship between historical race-based housing segregation and the current and predicted impacts of climate change.

Green infrastructure (GI) has become a panacea for cities working to enhance sustainability and resilience. While the rationale for GI primarily focuses on its multifunctionality (e.g. delivering multiple ecosystem services to local communities), uncertainties remain around how, for whom, and to what extent GI delivers these services.

Tree Equity Score calculates a score for all 150,000 neighborhoods and 486 municipalities in urbanized areas across the continental United States — cities and nearby small towns that have at least 50,000 people. More than 70% of the U.S. population lives in these urban places, which means the tool is wide-reaching.

The Trust for Public Land’s national Climate-Smart Cities program is providing key planning and decision-making support to help the City and County of Denver take strategic action on climate change through green infrastructure. Together with municipal and community partners, we’re bringing cutting-edge science, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) planning, and innovative design to help prepare the city for a climate-resilient future with a particular emphasis on investments for under-served populations.

Carbon Smart Wood™ is salvaged from local waste streams, rather than harvested. Trees are constantly removed as a result of weather, disease, or development pressures. So much of this supply is wasted that 12 million tons of wood waste enter municipal landfills every year. Cambium Carbon works with a network of arborists & millers to divert this waste stream, upcycling it into Carbon Smart Wood™.

These two related resources: The Urban Climate Lab’s (UCL) 2016 Louisville Urban Heat Management Study and the article, “Urban Heat Management in Louisville, Kentucky: A Framework for Climate Adaptation Planning” (2019) in the Journal for Planning Education and Research provide a great summary/illustration of the UCL framework for urban heat management.

Moving public and stakeholder audiences from simple awareness of climate change stressors in their communities to action on effective interventions to reduce those stressors relies on robust, detailed data as well as engaged residents and policymakers. This chapter describes a participatory urban climate knowledge-to-action (PUCKA) framework that both engages community scientists in an accepted methodology and provides practitioners and public stakeholders with detailed information about a particularly nefarious climate stressor: extreme urban heat.

As cities embark on ambitious urban forest campaigns that aim to expand tree canopy, prioritizing historically underserved communities is paramount, and Growing Shade is an easy-to-use, scientifically defensible, and early step for meeting tree canopy goals. By centering environmental and social equity, Growing Shade draws on actual neighborhood-scale data, and provides a first step to selecting neighborhoods that match specific environmental and social criteria.

Extreme heat is a growing concern for cities, with both climate change and the urban heat island (UHI) effect increasingly impacting public health, economies, urban infrastructure, and urban ecology. To better understand the current state of planning for extreme heat, we conducted a systematic literature review. We found that most of the research focuses on UHI mapping and modeling, while few studies delve into extreme heat planning and governance processes.