Forest in the city

摘要

The phrase "urban forest" might sound like an oxymoron, but thousands of such forests exist across the United States. An urban forest includes the sum of trees in an urban area, embracing the publicly and privately owned trees along streets, in yards,and in remnant forests.Eighty percent of Americans live in urban areas, so the impact of urban forests is broad. The USDA Forest Service even provides cooperative assistance in management of these forests through its Urban and Community Forestry program (UCF). Its mission is to "sustain the trees and forests where people live, work and play," which stresses the importance of having nature in cities. Conserving green space provides strong environmental, social, and economic benefits as well as growth and revitalization of cities and suburbs. The UCF defines urban forests to broadly include urban parks, landscaped boulevards, public gardens, river and coastal promenades, greenways, river corridors, wetlands, nature preserves, natural areas, shelter belts of trees and working trees at industrial brownfield sites. In simple terms an urban forest is the trees and forested green space within an urban area.