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Addressing the Current Street Tree Workload: The Levels of Service Concept The effectiveness of an urban forestry program is dependent on the resources available for each maintenance task. When fewer resources are available, the program must operate at a lower level of service often becoming reactionary and focusing on emergencies and major problems as they arise. While maintenance costs may be less, the health and quality of the forest is lower, and the work that is performed is less efficient. As service levels increase, more frequent pre- ventative work is possible, and the safety, health, aesthetics and benefits of the urban forest increase, often allowing the municipality to achieve both higher total benefits and receive more value per maintenance dollar.
Description of Service Levels
• SERVICE LEVEL 1 represents a minimum responsible level of service. Below this level, community safety is threatened by falling trees and limbs. At this level of service, large trees are periodically inspected and pruned, and dangerous trees or limbs are removed. Residents and volunteers are responsible for planting and maintaining trees. Wake Forest’s previously expressed goals for the urban forest cannot be met at this level of service, and it would be difficult to maintain Tree City USA status. • SERVICE LEVEL 2 represents a program that provides a degree of preventativemaintenance and planting. The town actively plants and maintains trees in the right of way, and problems with trees are eventually addressed. Without the assistance of residents and volunteers, trees cannot be replaced as quickly as they are removed. Currently, most aspects of Wake Forest’s Urban Forestry Program fall within this level of service. • SERVICE LEVEL 3 represents a typical mature urban forestry program that is both financially efficient and arboriculturally effective. A focus on preventative maintenance ensures that most problems are addressed at an early stage, decreasing mortality and unplanned work requests. More trees are planted than are removed, and the value of the resource steadily increases over time. This overall level of service is the recommended goal for the program by 2017. • SERVICE LEVEL 4 represents an advanced urban forestry program that provides the highest reasonable level of service for a given street tree population. While the total costs of level 4 are the highest, the benefits are also the highest, and the benefit to cost ratio is better than in other levels. This level of service is usually only seen in areas in which landscaping is of very high importance. Over the next 5 years, only a few program components are recommended for this level of service. • BEYOND SERVICE LEVEL 4 , the increased costs of maintenance are unlikely to result in significant improvements in the quality of the urban forest.
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