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Unit 6.14.00

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This is an open invitation to urban forestry professionals to participate in a process of developing data standards for urban forest data collection and recording (see attachment). This standardization process is being hosted by the International Society of Arboriculture, the U.S. Forest Service, and the International Union of Forestry Research Organizations (IUFRO). The purpose of this e-mail is to gauge interest or secure commitment from professionals related to participation in this process. What we would like to know is:

a) are you willing to serve on a standards committee or subcommittee to help develop these standards, or
b) are you willing to serve as reviewer of draft standards documents

If you are interested in either of the above, please e-mail confirmation to David Nowak (dnowak(at)fs.fed.us) and Sharon Lilly (slilly(at)isa-arbor.com) and please be sure to include your contact information and your area of expertise. Please confirm your interest by May 29nd.

After we compile a list of interested professionals, we will be in contact with these individuals on forming committees to develop standards in various topics related to data standardization (e.g., rating health and condition, tree decay and hazard, basic tree measurements, etc). A basic template of this process will be presented at the upcoming ISA conference in Providence, RI on Tuesday July 28th. After a short presentation, a workshop will be held to help form more specific plans on developing these standards. We hope you can attend this session. Most communication and work on these standards will be conducted via e-mail and telephone.

This development of standards is intended to be an open process and participation by professionals across the globe is essential. There are numerous benefits that can be gained for urban forestry internationally by instituting data standards (see attachment). We hope to have draft standards developed by early next year to be distributed for review. A tentative time line is:

May 2009: Secure professional commitments
June/July 2009: Draft outline standardization plan with subcommittee assignments and goals
July 28th: ISA presentation and workshop; gather input and revise plan as needed
August 2009 – February 2010: Subcommittees develop standards and report
March 2010: Standards sent out for review
July 2010: Publish standards

Please let us know if you have any questions and feel free to distribute this invitation to others who may be interested.

Also, you can access a PDF file outlining the International Urban Forest Data Standards Committee, at http://unri.org/iufro/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/standardization-team.pdf

Thank you for your consideration in this matter.

David J. Nowak, U.S. Forest Service, Deputy Coordinator of IUFRO RG 6.14.00
Sharon Lilly, International Society of Arboriculture
Jim Skiera, International Society of Arboriculture

• International cooperation in forest sector: balancing education, science and industry; Yoshkar-Ola, Russia, 2-5 June 2009; Conference homepage
  

• 12th European Forum on Urban Forestry; Arnhem, Netherlands, 27-30 May 2009; Conference homepage
  

• Conference 'Landscape Ecology and Forest Management: Challenges and Solutions'; Chengdu, China; 16-18 September 2008 (with subsequent field trip)
  The conference included a symposium titled 'Urban forest landscapes in the context of developing countries and rapid urbanization' organized by RG 6.14.00.
  Further information: http://research.eeescience.utoledo.edu/lees/IUFRO/2008MTG/

• Conference 'Forest Recreation and Tourism serving Urbanized Societies' (also the 11th European Forum on Urban Forestry (EFUF); Hämeenlinaa, Finland; 28-31 May 2008;
  Conference Program: http://www.metla.fi/tapahtumat/2008/recreation-tourism/programme.htm

• Urban Forestry session at IUFRO Division 6 Symposium, "Integrative Science for Integrated Management"; Sääriselkä, Finland, 14-20 August 2007;
  This event included a session hosted by IUFRO 6.14.00 on urban forestry. Title of the session is: "Integrating Social and Cultural Information in Urban Forest Planning and Management". You can find the session's programme at: http://www.metla.fi/tapahtumat/2007/iufro-d6/abstracts/konijnendijk-schedule.html

• Methods of Assessing Urban Forest Structure; Honolulu, Hawaii, USA; 31 July 2007 (held in conjunction with 83rd ISA Annual Conference (July 28 – August 1, 2007) – Call for Papers
  
  

• 12th European Forum on Urban Forestry – Changing city, changing forest
  Amsterdam, The Netherlands; 27-30 May 2009;
  More information will become available at http://www.efuf.org

• 4th International Conference on Monitoring and Management of Visitor Flows in Recreational and Protected Areas (MMV4)
  Italy; 14-19 October 2008;
  For further information see http://www.mmv4.org
  

• COST Action E39 "Forests, Trees and Human Health and Wellbeing"
  Hamar, Norway; 28-30 August 2008;
  For more information see http://www.e39.ee/?News:Conference_in_Norway
  

• FAO International Meeting on Urban and Peri-Urban Forestry, Trees Connecting People, In Action Together
  Bogotá, Colombia; 29 July – 1 August 2008;
  Further information at http://km.fao.org/uploads/media/BogotaEN.pdf
  

• ISA European Congress of Aboriculture
  Turin, Italy; 16-18 June 2008;
  Information about this event is provided at http://www.isaeuropeancongress.eu/.
  

• International conference "Enjoy and Protect our Forests"
  Fontainebleau, France; 17-18 October 2007;
  For further information, visit: http://www.progress-eu.info/

• Conference 'The History, Ecology and Archaeology of Medieval Parks and Parklands'
  Sheffield, UK; 17-19 September 2007;
  More information about this event is available at: http://www.ukeconet.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4&Itemid=26 (co-sponsored by IUFRO Working Party 6.07.02)
  
  
• International conference, "Landscape Management – Present and Future"
  Brno, Czech Republic; 13-14 September 2007;
  You can obtain further information from Mr. Petr Hruza at the Mendel University of Brno, petrhr(at)mendelu.cz
  
  
• Conference 'Urban Wildspaces'
  Sheffield, UK; 7 September 2007;
  More information at: http://www.ieem.org.uk/Urban%20Wildscape%20flyer%20and%20booking%20form1.pdf
  

• 44th IFLA World Congress, "Edening the Earth"
  Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; 27-30 August 2007;
  Conference information at: http://www.ifla2007.com/