Danville among first cities in Virginia to launch urban forestry campaign

Danville, a city that has seen rapid development in recent years, is working to balance its growth with social and environmental well-being. A new urban forestry campaign will prioritize factors like green space, shade, flood resiliency and air quality, starting in neighborhoods that historically have been left out of such conversations.

Danville is one of the first cities in the state to participate in a Virginia Department of Forestry program to “regreen” areas of the city.

A local committee is strategizing about how to balance this program with the city’s goals of continued growth and development.

Four cities in Virginia were selected to participate in the Community Forest Revitalization Program: Danville, Martinsville, Petersburg and Hopewell.

All were identified as economically disadvantaged, though the Danville region has been pushing back against that narrative recently with unprecedented levels of growth and development.

There’s ongoing construction at multiple places throughout the city — projects including housing developments, new parks and the Caesars Virginia casino resort. Developments like these are often associated with cutting trees down, rather than planting them.

But the city wants its goals for growth to coexist with the tree campaign, said Jessica Smith, the city’s horticulturist.

“The goal is always to plant more trees than we remove every year,” Smith said.

Trees can be beneficial in the midst of development for issues like stormwater management and heat protection.

One mature canopy tree, like an oak, can intercept thousands of gallons of runoff annually, according to the Green Infrastructure Center, a nonprofit that is working with Danville on this initiative.

GIC helps localities design, implement and maintain green infrastructure, a term that refers to environmental features meant to benefit the ecosystem.

The program is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture through the Inflation Reduction Act, and it comes at no cost to the selected cities.

The nonprofit will meet with a local committee in Danville monthly throughout the course of the project, which will take about two years to complete.

The committee is composed of representatives from organizations around the city, including the parks and recreation and public works departments and community groups, Smith said.

The campaign is split into two phases, the first of which revolves around planning, Smith said. The Danville committee has already met with GIC representatives to work on mapmaking.

They’ve mapped the city’s walkable areas and its heat islands, which are areas that get hotter than others because they have more heat-absorbing surfaces and heat-generating activity, as well as less vegetation.

“The ultimate goal for the planning is to gather all the information that we can about this area so we can develop what’s considered a strategic urban forestry plan,” Smith said.

Next month, the committee will meet to look at codes and ordinances, she said.

“[We can] establish areas that we may not want to develop in,” Smith said. “Or if we’re going to develop, then let’s go ahead and start beefing up these other areas.”

As part of this, GIC is auditing the city’s policies regarding development and tree planting, said Jessica Huang, community forest planner for GIC.

“There are areas where the ordinances could likely be improved to have development in a way that’s protecting the resources and supporting the existing tree canopy,” Huang said. “For example, instead of clear-cutting a space, there should be policies in place to keep a certain percentage of trees.”

Revised ordinances around tree-planting could help the city council make decisions about whether to allow a specific kind of development in a specific location, Smith said.

This kind of strategic approach will allow Danville to continue growing while better protecting its trees, she said.

The second phase will be more “boots on the ground,” actually planting trees, Smith said. “But it’s not just about planting trees. It’s also about looking at how healthy our tree canopy is.”

A healthy tree canopy can provide both environmental and social benefits, said Kendall Topping, community forester with GIC.

“There have been studies showing that areas with less trees have higher levels of people with asthma,” Topping said.

Trees are also a vital line of defense from extreme heat, Topping and Huang said.

“As the effects of climate change increase in severity, shade will become more important throughout Danville,” a release from the city said. “One of the program’s goals is to increase shade in the hottest areas of the city.”

By 2070, the number of annual days over 95 degrees in Danville will increase from an average of eight to an average of 50, said the release, citing a community climate study .

“It’s about community health, getting people outside and mitigating those climate change effects,” Topping said. “It’s also about making sure that the neighborhoods that are in the most need of those benefits are actually receiving them.”

The program’s implementation in Danville will focus specifically on underserved and disadvantaged neighborhoods.

And need was factored into the locality’s application process for this program, which was competitive, said Huang.

“Danville was prioritized because there is a larger census tract for disadvantaged populations,” she said.

Location was also considered when picking the four cities, Smith said. The two sets of “sister cities” were chosen together because when nearby localities prioritize urban forestry, the benefits are amplified, she said.

Martinsville officials did not respond to requests for an interview about the campaign.

Sometime next spring, the Danville committee will host an open house to present its findings to the public. At that point, the group will also take community input, which Smith said is an important part of the process.

“With city-wide development on the horizon, strategic planning for our urban forest is vital to sustain growth in our community,” Smith said in the release.

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