Urban Guide Lesson 3: Working Together in the Urban Forest
Lesson Plans
Grades9, 10, 11, 12, APBiology, Earth and Space Sciences, Geography
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Provided by Wisconsin Center for Environmental Education
What it is
- This 60-minute lesson teaches techniques used to manage urban forests, such as planting, mulching, pruning, monitoring, and pest and disease control, and explains the challenges urban trees face.
- In a role-play mapping activity, student groups make management decisions for different properties (homeowners, a gas station, a strip mall, and a lot being developed), then combine their maps to reveal conflicts and discuss how stakeholders can work together.
Teaching tips
Classroom Implementation:
- This is the third of four LEAF 9-12 Urban Forest Lessons; it can be taught in isolation but some ideas about management economics may need to be explained.
- Do not allow groups to discuss their plans with one another before the maps are combined; the unrevealed adjacent-property conflicts are central to the lesson's point about shared management.
- Provide students with a short checklist (utilities, sidewalks, sun exposure, existing trees) to guide their mapping decisions.
- Ensure you have enough wall space and materials to tape and combine students' maps.
Extensions:
- Have students research an actual local ordinance or tree ordinance in their city/town governing street tree planting or removal, and compare it to what the class decided.
- Invite the school groundskeeper as a guest speaker or have students read an urban forest career biography to connect the content to careers.
- Ask students to role-play a mediated conversation between two neighboring groups whose decisions conflicted, practicing negotiation and compromise.
Climate Change Connections:
- Urban trees under stress (compacted soil, pollution, limited space) are less resilient to climate-driven extremes like heat waves and drought—tie this into why intensive management matters more as climate stress increases.
- Discuss how damaging weather events are becoming more frequent with climate change, raising the stakes for coordinated, proactive management.
From the scientist review
This resource explores how stakeholders in urban forests interact. All terms are clearly defined in the text. Students are engaged in thinking about how each home or business owner’s actions influence the totality of their ecosystem. While this resource does not directly discuss climate change, given the important role urban forests serve in climate mitigation, it is recommended for teaching.
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