2.9 Managing Urban and native forests for resilience in a changing climate

Urban and native forests are experiencing increased environmental pressures as well as new demands and expectations by society. There are a range of management interventions that can help these forests to be more resilient to these pressures and extra demands.

This lecture outlines how the history of these forests defines the current level of resilience, how environmental conditions are expected to change over the century and how managers can influence species establishment and reduce environmental stress.

The lecture starts with a detailed case study of an urban forest then extrapolates the concepts for native forests.

About the Lecturer

Prof. Cris Brac

Cris is an Associate Professor (Honorary) at the Australian National University and Chief Biometrician for The Mullion Group. He has been practicing, teaching and researching forest management for over a quarter of a century. As Senior Inventory Officer for the Forestry Commission NSW he was responsible for optimising the value and harvesting operations for plantations and native forests, while his PhD research further explored Operations Research and the potential of Expert Systems and Artificial Intelligence in forest management. He developed DISMUT (Decision Information System for Managing Urban Trees) and was co-developer of NCAS which won a Eureka Award for Environmental Science. He has published over 80 peer reviewed articles on forestry and natural resource management.

2.9 Managing Urban and native forests for resilience in a changing climate

In this lecture:

  • Values
  • How many trees are useful? Safe?
  • Urban Climate
  • Renew and Replant
  • Native Forests are Dynamic
  • Thinning
  • Fire and Grazing