Long‐term outcomes of forest restoration in an urban park

Abstract

Creating, restoring, and sustaining forests in urban areas are complicated by habitat fragmentation, invasive species, and degraded soils. Although there is some research on the outcomes of urban reforestation plantings during the first 5 years, there is little research on longer term outcomes. Here, we compare the successional trajectories of restored and unrestored forest sites 20 years after initiating restoration. The sites are located within the Rodman's Neck area of Pelham Bay Park, in the northeast corner of the Bronx in New York City (NYC), U.S.A. Compared with unrestored sites, we saw improvements in species diversity, greater forest structure complexity, and evidence of the regeneration and retention of native tree species in restored sites. In addition, we found differences in restoration outcomes depending on the level of intervention: clearing exotic shrubs and vines and planting native trees and shrubs improved tree diversity and canopy closure to a greater extent than clearing exotics alone, and the mechanical removal of invasive plants after the native plantings further improved some measures of restoration, such as tree species diversity and native tree regeneration. The results of this study suggest that the goal of a sustainable forest ecosystem dominated by native trees and other plant species may not be achievable without continued human intervention on site. In addition, these results indicate that the restoration approach adopted by NYC's reforestation practitioners is moving the site toward a more desirable vegetative community dominated by native species.

Emerging Urban Forests: Opportunities for Promoting the Wild Side of the Urban Green Infrastructure

“…Creating new forests by planting trees in cities is well established in restoration ecology, e.g., [26][27][28][29], ranging from near-natural sites at the urban fringe, e.g., [30,31], to anthropogenically altered sites [32][33][34]. Yet such tree plantings and related maintenance require the allocation of considerable resources and do not always yield satisfying results, e.g., when continued maintenance is necessary [31,35]. It may thus be useful to consider complementary pathways towards establishing new forests in cities.…”

An Assessment of a Community-Based, Forest Restoration Programme in Durban (eThekwini), South Africa

“…This is also because habitats that have been subjected to anthropogenic disturbance (e.g., agriculture) particularly in close proximity to cities are more vulnerable and highly likely to be invaded (e.g., [74]). Repeated removal of IAPs can increase native tree recruitment and tree species diversity [4]. Furthermore, past studies have found a decrease in IAP cover with an increase in natural forest tree canopy cover (e.g., [75]).…”

“…The colonization of reforested habitats by weeds (graminoids and forbs) and IAPs is a serious concern, because this can lead to restoration failure if weed/IAP management is inadequate/unsuitable [4,14]. It is therefore critical to continuously monitor the presence, expansion and distribution of IAPs.…”

“…Furthermore, owing to a rapid expansion of urban populations and the threats of climate change, green infrastructure investment has become a necessity in large and developing cities across the globe [3,4]. In the quest of creating sustainable creation of a self-sustaining, functional forest ecosystem that is resilient to disturbance and the presence of IAPs.…”

Стан Зелених Насаджень Міста Умань

“…Водночас, досі недостатньо оцінено вплив діяльності людини на рекреаційно-оздоровчі, захисні і природоохоронні деревостани міста на ландшафтно-екологічному рівні, хоча рекогносцирувальне обстеження території Умані і дослідження нами дендропарку "Софіївка" та урочища "Білогрудівська дача" свідчать, що вони є істотними (Lavrov et al, 2015(Lavrov et al, , 2017. Для збереження й оптимізації структури зеленої зони міста, підвищення її екологічної ефективності необхідно врахувати зазначені проблеми, а також наявний досвід щодо створення й утримання зелених насаджень у містах Європи та його використання в Україні (Laptiev, 1998;Kucheriavyi, 1999;Ricotta et al, 2009;Williams et al, 2015;Simmons et al, 2016;Rat et al, 2017). Це сприятиме ефективнішій реалізації "Програми благоустрою міста Умань на 2016-2020 роки".…”