Community Forest Storm Mitigation Planning Workbook

A community forest storm mitigation plan is an essential part of your community’s hazard mitigation and emergency management plans and systems. The plan should focus specifically on ways to avoid or mitigate the damage trees cause during a storm or other catastrophic event and ways to avoid the loss of trees and tree canopy across a community.

This workbook was originally developed by the Georgia Forestry Commissionand adapted by the Green Infrastructure Center for general use to communities across the United States through funding from the National Urban and Community Forestry Advisory Council (NUCFAC).

This Community Forest Storm Mitigation Planning Workbook and the accompanying Community Forest Storm Mitigation Planning Template are intended as tools for communities to use in assessing their community forest storm readiness; mitigating tree risk and reducing tree-related storm damage, and developing a community forest storm mitigation plan. The workbook guides you through filling in the template, which serves as a basic framework for developing your Community Forest Storm Mitigation plan. As the template is filled in, gaps in storm readiness, tree risk mitigation and community forest management will be identified. As these gaps are addressed, the plan should be revised and updated. Communities may find it helpful to work with their neighbors to develop plans that are similar and include agreements to share resources.

Learn more on our Storm Mitigation Planning page.