Forestry Services

Images of Forestry At Work

Forestry Services is responsible for the design, planning, planting, and management of approximately 190,000 street trees, boulevards, landscapes, green spaces, and beautification projects within the City of Milwaukee.

The primary goal is to efficiently manage the urban landscape to provide a better quality of life for Milwaukee's citizens and visitors. This effort seeks to maximize the environmental and psychological benefits of the urban forest, while enhancing both landscape and property values. Forestry manages vegetation on 120 miles of boulevards, play parks, greenspaces, designated municipal properties, and Downtown above-ground planters. We also serve as a resource to other agencies in greenspace design, implementation and maintenance.

Street Tree Services

Forestry Services manages a diverse population of trees situated along boulevard medians, tree terraces, and play parks throughout the city's neighborhoods. These trees are essential to the urban infrastructure, offering a wide range of benefits to Milwaukee residents. They help reduce heat stress on people and infrastructure, enhance air and water quality, lower carbon emissions, increase property values, and provide vital wildlife habitat. Forestry Services is dedicated to maintaining a healthy and vigorous street tree population to ensure these benefits continue and potentially increase for Milwaukee residents both now and in the future.

We offer a range of services to maintain, protect, and enhance the urban forest and the valuable benefits it provides.

All street trees are inspected for pruning on a five-year cycle, organized by numbered quarter-section management units. During this cycle, young trees (less than 12 inches in diameter at breast height, or DBH) are pruned to enhance their structure and promote healthy growth as they mature. Additionally, mature trees (greater than 12 inches DBH) are assessed for pruning needs. Conditions such as structural defects, dead branches, and low-hanging branches over sidewalks, streets, or buildings are identified, and corrective pruning or tree removal is scheduled as necessary.

City residents are welcome to contact Forestry Services if they believe out-of-cycle pruning is needed for street trees adjacent to their residence or business. Common reasons for out-of-cycle pruning include low branches growing over the sidewalk and street, and noticing a defect such as a split, large cavity, or large deadwood. A trained arborist will inspect all requests for tree pruning and determine if out-of-cycle pruning is warranted. To request pruning service use ‘Click-for-Action’ or call (414) 286-CITY (2489).

A primary goal of Forestry Services is to ensure the health and vitality of all street trees throughout the city, maximizing the benefits these trees provide. To achieve this, our policy is to remove only those trees that are dead, pose a hazard, or have been compromised due to construction-related activities. We actively monitors the condition of the street tree population through various methods, including pruning and inspection cycles, annual surveys, and assessments following extreme weather events that may cause tree damage. We also value input from our residents; if you suspect a street tree is hazardous, dead, leaning, or split, please request service by using ‘Click-for-Action’ or call (414) 286-CITY (2489).

Following tree removal, Forestry will schedule stump grinding and site restoration activities to prepare the area for replanting. A small crew will first grind the stump, followed by a site restoration crew several days to a week later. The restoration crew will remove the stump chips, apply and grade new topsoil, and sow high-quality grass seed in the area. It is crucial for residents to water the grass seed daily until it germinates and becomes established. After the first mowing, watering can be reduced to 1 to 2 times a week, depending on weather conditions.

To ensure a high stocking level and maximize the benefits of the tree canopy, Forestry Services strives to replace and replant trees whenever possible. A trained arborist will inspect all potential planting sites to assess their suitability for new trees, selecting the best tree for each location. However, site restrictions such as utility conflicts, nearby private trees, and sight line visibility issues may prevent a tree from being planted. If you have had a new tree planted adjacent to your residence in the past year; please help by watering the tree with 5-10 gallons per week during the growing season. If you have questions regarding tree planting please file a service request using ‘Click-for-Action’ or call (414) 286-CITY (2489).

Boulevards

Forestry Services manages the Signature Landscape Beds, turf, irrigation and trees on 120 miles of our historic boulevard system. That’s the distance from downtown Milwaukee to downtown Green Bay!

HISTORY

The very first City of Milwaukee landscaped boulevard was constructed in 1897 as a part of Frederick Law Olmstead’s principle that public spaces should be free and accessible, regardless of class differences. He conceptualized boulevards as ”broad, linear green spaces, essentially linear parks, which could connect or terminate at spacious parks”. Boulevards and Parks together would form a “Green Necklace” around the City. The Common Council at the time only funded the first boulevard, which was Newberry. Newberry Boulevard still stretches for one mile connecting two of Law Olmstead’s parks, Lake and Riverside.

It was considered prestigious in the early part of the 20^th century in Milwaukee to have a house built on a beautiful boulevard. Milwaukee’s various types of boulevards created a network of open public green spaces throughout the congested city, distributed upper income housing more evenly throughout Milwaukee’s residential districts, and also allowed for improved traffic flow.

In the 1920’s, the long-term investment of public infrastructure on the boulevard system began with the installation of landscaped beds, turf, trees and irrigation systems.

In 2008, due to impending budget constraints, an evaluation study was completed to make the boulevard system more sustainable. With input from citizens and professionals, it was decided to 1) eliminate low impact flower and shrub beds and replace them with turf and trees 2) Install of highly visual Signature Landscape Beds at historic/landmark gateways and major intersections throughout the city 3) Convert the irrigation system to an automated one to save operating costs and conserve water 4) Increase the tree canopy in the City by focusing on planting large shade trees, ornamental and evergreen trees.

Throughout the years, leaders and urban planners from other cities have come from across the country to Milwaukee to learn about the benefits of our historic boulevard system. It is a rare and lasting example of what thoughtful planning and dedicated, professional maintenance can build.

TODAY

There are approximately 300 Signature Landscape Beds distributed equitably throughout the City. We are currently in the midst of another change to our boulevard system. In order to evolve with our changing environment and make our boulevards even more sustainable, we are converting 50% of our annual flower plantings to permanent perennial plantings in our Signature Beds. We are using Native perennials as much as possible. The environmental benefits of this initiative include:

Conserving water: Native plants require less water than turf and annual flowers.
Supporting biodiversity: Native plants attract pollinators and provide habitat for birds and small mammals.
Reducing maintenance costs and chemical usage: Native perennials need less care and are resistant to disease and pests.
Preventing erosion: The deep root systems of native plants help stabilize soil.
Enhancing beauty: Native perennials offer a variety of blooms and colors throughout the seasons.

We also hope our citizens take inspiration from our Signature Beds and plant more native perennials in their own landscapes. Our crews work diligently throughout the year maintaining the social, economic and environmental benefits of our beautiful boulevards. We do this for the citizens who live here and the millions of visitors we have each year. Boulevards are good for business, our mental well being and the environment!

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See also: Milwaukee Water Works, Parking Services, and Sanitation Services

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