Urban Forest Resource Management at Hill Air Force Base, Ogden, Utah

Abstract

Most military bases can be thought of as good-sized communities, containing all of the important resources that non-military communities contain including urban forests. These military urban forests have similarities and differences with urban forests in non-military communities, and their management is in some ways different. In this paper we describe the urban forest situation at Hill Air Force Base in northern Utah, an example of a military base still in the early stages of urban forest management, but with an improving and expanding urban forestry program. The base, in cooperation with Utah State University's Department of Forest Resources, began an assessment of its program and conducted a complete tree inventory in 1993. Inventory results and a qualitative assessment led to development of a plan with management goals and implementation strategies, which became part of an overall Natural Resources Management Plan for the Base. Besides increasing tree numbers and overall urban forest quality and tree management, the plan calls for increased emphasis on community participation as the key to a successful urban forestry program.