City Forester
Bill Mitchell
Parks & Recreation Department
102 Public Square
Clarksville, TN 37040
931-221-4951
bill.mitchell@cityofclarksville.com

Mission Statement: Our community urban forestry program will strive to raise awareness of the importance of trees, one of natures gifts, and maintain the City’s trees in a safe and healthy condition so that we all garner the environmental, social, and economic benefits they provide.

Program Goals & Objectives :

To develop and maintain a comprehensive inventory of all city trees.
Implement pruning and removal practices that follow current industry standards.
Provide expert care for the urban trees within our urban & community forest.
Provide community outreach and education for tree care.
Serve as Technical Advisor on landscape planning for city-wide projects.
These goals are accomplished with the cooperation of all City Departments, The Clarksville Tree Board, numerous civic and social organizations and concerned citizens throughout the city.

What is urban forestry and why is it important to our community?

Urban forestry is a specialized branch of forestry in which its objective is the management of trees for their present and potential contribution to the urban society. Urban forestry embraces a multi-managerial system that includes watersheds, wildlife habitats, parks, landscape design as well as tree care. Most people like trees and can agree that they are beautiful and the world would be an ugly place without them. While this is true, trees are an investment that will grow to provide economic benefits both directly and indirectly. Examples of direct economic benefits associated with trees are reduced energy cost and increased home value. Indirect benefits occur regionally as lowered electricity bills are paid by customers when power companies use less water in their cooling towers. Communities benefit when trees intercept rainfall reducing the number of facilities that must be built to manage storm water run-off. Urban forests are a part of the City’s green infrastructure and require the services of a professional arborist who develops a management plan for existing trees and plans for the future.