How the Tampa Bay Forest Working Group (TBFWG) collaborates to leverage resources for collective impact:
The Tampa Bay Forest Working Group is a collaborative. It is a partnership founded on a mission statement and four broad goals set fourteen years ago. Shared interests and development of professional and ethical bonds have held the group together. Organized initially by the University of Florida IFAS Extension, it now engages in a variety of ecological and social assessments, urban forest planning and management consultation, and educational programming. The TBFWG’s core members include representatives of various universities as well as local, state and federal government agencies.
A few examples of work beyond strategic urban forest, and natural area, planning and management:
• In partnership with the US EPA, the Ecosystem Services Research Program (ESRP) assesses the impact of urban forest wetlands to protect water quality; assesses the role of urban forest vegetation along transportation corridors to attenuate carbon particulate matter, and completes analysis of ecosystem services provided by urban trees and forests within the Tampa Bay Watershed. This led to the development of an ecosystems services analysis tool designed specifically for the Tampa Bay Watershed (local). • In partnership with the USDA Forest Service, the group assesses the role of riparian forest vegetation to attenuate the movement of dissolved nitrogen in shallow ground water to open water bodies and aquifers, and assesses the reorganization of forest plant communities due to stress associated with regional urbanization. • Working with three separate Florida universities and a not-for-profit stormwater engineering firm, the TBFWG developed a suite of planning tools for the integration of green infrastructure into existing gray (engineered) stormwater systems – Gray to Green: Tools for Transitioning to Vegetation-Based Stormwater Management . This project was funded by the USDA Forest Service.
• In partnership with the State of Florida Forest Service, the group conducts an analysis of urban forest canopy cover within all municipal boundaries within the state.
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