The Future of the Los Angeles Urban Forest

AIA|LA Urban Design Committee presents…
The Future of the Los Angeles Urban Forest

Based on the results of a 2016 study by the USC Spatial Sciences Institute, the City of Los Angeles’s tree canopy is in steep decline — down in each Council District around 30% between 2000 and 2009. The study looked at single-family residential neighborhoods and found that increased building footprint and hardscape was principally to blame for the decline. This was before the most recent drought and the increased mortality due to invasive pest and the drought.

Join the Urban Design Committee of AIA|LA to explore ideas to address this growing and underreported crisis.

This session will be focused on how to make streets and site development more sustainable. Let’s explore how we architects, landscape architects and urban designs can have a positive impact.

Travis Longcore, Ph.D., GISP – Assistant Professor of Architecture, Spatial Sciences, and Biological Sciences, University of Southern California

Dr. Travis Longcore is an Assistant Professor of Architecture, Spatial Sciences, and Biological Sciences at the University of Southern California. He is a core faculty member in the Landscape Architecture graduate program and the undergraduate major in GeoDesign, a Faculty Affiliate of the Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies and serves as Science Director of The Urban Wildlands Group, a Los Angeles-based conservation nonprofit.

Dr. Longcore’s research is focused on nature in cities and makes use of diverse statistical tools, fieldwork, and geographic information systems. His landmark article “Ecological Light Pollution” (Longcore and Rich 2004) and 2006 co-edited book Ecological Consequences of Artificial Night Lighting (Island Press) have come to define a new and rapidly growing research area in ecology. His service to the profession includes serving as Associate Editor of PLoS ONE and Urban Ecosystems.

Dr. Longcore is an accomplished environmental policy consultant, having provided extensive expert commentary and analysis in dozens of environmental cases for local, regional, and national organizations on issues as diverse as “towerkill” of migratory birds at communications towers, the proposed delisting of the Yellowstone population of grizzly bears, the ecological impacts of pesticides on birds, and numerous residential, recreational, and commercial development projects.

Before joining USC, Dr. Longcore co-developed science-based habitat restoration program and native plant nursery for coastal dune habitats and transferred operation to nonprofit training at-risk youth and young adults; directed the growth of a yearlong senior practicum problems course for a B.S. program in environmental science with competitive selection of student group projects for off-campus clients ranging from Fortune 500 companies to local nonprofits; and managed a successful captive breeding program for endangered California butterflies, which he continues to oversee.