Home Forester Worksheet

The integrated approach of the T.R.E.E.S. Project is informed by the principles of forest ecosystem management. The land around your home is a vital piece of the urban forest and the watershed. How that land is managed - one lot at a time - can have a significant impact on your city's flood protection, water supply, air and water quality, waste management and economy.

This Home Forester worksheet will help you apply the same principles of forest ecosystem management at the residential level. With it, you can evaluate and begin developing the watershed potential of your property. Using several of the techniques - or best management practices (BMPs) - developed by the T.R.E.E.S. Project, it is possible to retrofit and care for the land around your home or business so it can function as an urban forest watershed. Here's how:

Step One: Explore your property to discover the remnants of the living ecosystem.

How much soil remains unpaved and what is its condition?

• Can it breathe, absorb water, and support life?
• Is it alive with plants and bugs?
• Has it been treated with chemicals to prevent plants from growing?

What happens to rain water when it falls?

• Does it get absorbed into the soil to nurture lawns and garden?
• How much goes off site, carrying yard waste plus street pollutants into the storm drains?

Do you have trees on your property?

• Are they planted in places where they can do the most good?
• Do they capture the rain and prevent runoff and erosion?
• Do they shade your south and west facing walls from the heat of the sun?
• Do they allow the winter sun to warm your home?
• Are they beautiful and fragrant?
• Do they provide you with fruit?
• Do they attract, feed or shelter birds and wildlife?
• Can children play safely in their lower branches?

Are you making use of your urban forest's products?

• Mulch, composed of pruned or fallen leaves and branches, plus lawn trimmings, contains all the energy necessary to feed the soil and nurture the surrounding life.
• Mulch also acts as a sponge and, if properly managed, can absorb, store, and slowly release many thousands of gallons of water into the soil each year.
• How much mulch or "green waste" does your property produce every year?
• Is the energy of your tree mulch captured and recycled-or is it hauled away to the landfill?

Step Two: Look for places where you can alter the landscape or hardscape to repair and restore nature's interrupted systems.

• Where can you remove concrete or asphalt to make space for trees to shade your home, and for more soil and plants to capture the rainfall?
• Can you use mulch on the soil-especially under trees or along garden beds-to hold water, prevent flooding, and recycle nutrients?
• Can you put a berm around the edge of your lawn to enable it to store up to eight inches of rain water?
• Can you create a swale (a slightly depressed piece of land that is shaped like a creek) to direct rainfall safely through the landscape while filtering it and allowing it to absorb into the soil?
• Can you redirect the downspouts from your roof rain gutters so rain water flows to the lawn and garden areas instead of to the street and storm drains?
• Can you create a drywell to capture and filter the potentially polluted rain water that runs down driveways or pavement so as to redirect it into the soil?
• Can you use a rain barrel or cistern-stored above or below ground-to capture water from rooftops and store it for use in landscaping during dry weather?
• Can you redirect the drains from your sinks, showers, and/or washing machines to capture some of your "gray water" for irrigation use?

Step Three: Study the Demonstration Site pages and the details for the four BMPs to see how each can be applied to your site.

Begin by assessing the specific environmental issues for your area that may be lessened to some degree by your application of these BMPs:

• Is your area under a flood threat; or does your site contribute to downstream flooding or water pollution?
• Is the cost of importing water from distant sources an issue for your area?
• Is there a city or regional problem with too much waste going to landfills?
• Does your area have an air pollution problem partially linked to the generation of electricity?
• Is your planet experiencing global warming?

Prioritize a list of BMPs that you could implement with a minimal investment of time and money that would provide the greatest positive impact on your property and neighborhood. For instance, consider the following:

• The strategic planting of shade trees could help reduce air conditioning costs.
• Visit the Tree Selection page on the TreePeople site to help determine trees appropriate for your site.
• Visit the Smart Planting for the New Urban Forest site to determine the right places to plant trees for energy conservation.

The cistern developed for the Demonstration Site was invented to safely hold large quantities of rain water on small urban sites. It only exists in prototype form at this time so it is likely to prove too costly for the average homeowner to install. However, it is the vision of the T.R.E.E.S. Project Implementation Plan that newly created watershed utilities would subsidize the installation and maintenance of cisterns and other BMPs on private property. Evaluate whether a cistern makes sense for your site in the following manner:

• Calculate the square footage of the roof of your house and/or garage. Go to the Cistern Model page on this site and enter the square footage of the roof into the appropriate slider on the form.
• Play with the model. Try out various cistern capacities and daily irrigation rates and see how it would perform. This model shows how the cistern would perform based on the 1997-98 rainfall year in Los Angeles. You may be surprised to discover the very large quantities of water that can be captured and stored for later use.

To download a printable copy of the Home Forester worksheet, click here (Acrobat Reader required, filesize 12kb).