Beattra Wilson is Assistant Director for Cooperative Forestry within the U.S. Forest Service. As national lead for the agency’s Urban and Community Forestry Program, Wilson oversees program policy, budget, partnership development and strategic and equitable delivery of federal and state urban forestry programs. She has built a career administering conservation cooperative assistance programs at regional and national offices and has served on boards and committees to advance environmental justice, conservation workforce diversity and customer experience. Wilson has completed White House detail assignments to the Council on Environmental Quality and Office of Management and Budget and co-chaired the Secretary of Agriculture’s Executive Committee for 1890 Land Grant Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Wilson has a bachelor’s degree in urban forestry and a master’s degree in public administration.

Recently, she shared time with NACD to discuss several topics related to her work.

Do you mind talking a little bit about your role as assistant director and the program that you lead for the Forest Service?

I am the Assistant Director of Cooperative Forestry within State and Private Forestry, a deputy area of the U.S. Forest Service. In this space, I have the pleasure of leading the National Urban and Community Forestry program – that is literally the breadth of my portfolio. It’s unique to the agency, because all of the resources, all of our assistance and all of our collaborations and partnerships are expected to take place in urban communities across America. We’re roughly a $40 million program, and we are essentially executed, delivered and held accountable through local communities. Every state has a forestry agency, and they deliver our Urban and Community Forestry Program. If you think about the concept of who knows what the lay of the land is, what the landscape needs are, especially when we start talking about urbanized communities outside of what we call the green line for our National Forest System, and what many states may call private land outside of their state forestry and park system, these are the folks closest to the local communities. And that’s the expectation of our resources – that we meet the needs of the people living in these urban communities and not necessarily simply focus on the management of the resources.

We are a small team. Right now, we’re a team of three, when it should be six, and we have regional coordinators placed across the country in each of our Forest Service regions who help us deliver this program, and a host of partners — nonprofits, university partners — who really, truly advocate for us. And so, again, thinking about a program that can capture roughly 7,500 communities a year and (according to census data) where a little over 200 million people live.

You mentioned the state contacts. A growing number of conservation districts are doing work in urban forestry. Would you advise that as their best first point of contact?

Yes. Each state has an urban forestry program manager, so that’s part of what we provide from the federal government. In addition to that, many of our states also have volunteer coordinators. These are the folks who think about urban forestry boards across the state, and if they don’t have a specific person who does their volunteer coordination, often there’s a nonprofit organization who’s been designated to deliver this same service, and so they do a lot of the outreach and education and advocacy on behalf of urban forestry within that state. And so, when you think about your organization of conservation districts, that would be right on time, because not only will it connect them with the Forest Service’s resources for urban and community forestry, but as we are part of a larger umbrella under the Department of Agriculture, our sister organization, NRCS, a lot of times there’s overlap in that contact list, in those collaborations, and also the ability to get work done on the ground now that we’re talking about urban communities. Our emphasis is on urban forestry, whereas we see a lot of emphasis from our sister agency in urban agriculture. At the root of it, we’re looking at what the community needs, and so we probably connect more than I know of because, again, on the ground is where we truly make our investment.

You’ve had a lot of different experiences throughout your career. Share a little bit about those experiences leading up to your current position.

My introduction to urban forestry actually comes from my bachelor’s degree. I have a bachelor’s in urban forestry, and I interned with the Forest Service every summer in a different way — on the national forest, in conservation education, and doing true urban forestry. So, when I arrived on the scene in the Forest Service following graduation, I started in our southern region in Atlanta in urban forestry as a trainee. Unfortunately, the agency wasn’t in the place to where they were permanently bringing in urban forester trainees and enrolling them into the agency. So, I shifted into natural resources budget management. On that side, I was exposed to all the financial and the planning and the performance expectations of all the funds that go through state and private forestry. After spending a few years in that space, I shifted to fire and aviation, because it falls under the same umbrella of state and private forestry. It’s a unique organization, a very wealthy organization, but a huge portion of who we are as the Forest Service and a lot of the work we do. I did a lot of auditing and accountability, the large fire cost reviews, the Secretary’s independent panel reviews, essentially auditing $100 million, at a minimum, wildfires. Then came back to urban forestry about 10 or 11 years ago and brought all of that [experience] with me to this role. And so, if I was already thinking outside of the traditional experience of forestry and Forest Service, these experiences of budget, of wildfire, of being introduced to urban natural resources at a historically black college, all that comes along with the package deal that is Beattra.

For some time, it felt like urban forestry was always fighting to get to the food dish. Now it feels as though there’s a little bit of momentum with urban forestry. Would you agree with that? And if so, what can or what should the urban forestry community do to seize upon that opportunity?

That’s a good question, and having NACD as one of our collaborating partners in the Sustainable Urban Forests Coalition (SUFC) is helpful, because you’ve heard all the excitement. It’s been building and building, but, wow, we’ve really hit peak season. It’s the emphasis around equity right now. We’re still in the midst. Everyone on the news is saying we’re at the end, we’re sitting at the corner, we see the light at the end of the tunnel, but we’re still in a global pandemic that’s respiratory based. This virus has had us sheltered in place in our homes for over a year. And so, when we start talking about disparities, it’s pretty clear who has access to green space, because it’s the only way you can really convene, commune, recreate or get a breath of “fresh air,” or maybe even spend some time with a loved one or friend in an open-air setting, socially distanced. If you don’t have that option available to you, it’s pretty obvious where the shortcomings will kick in. I have a kindergartner and a fourth-grader not being able to go and play at the park and playground the way they normally would have, but what about those families in those communities that don’t have a park within a 15-minute walk? They might have to get in the car and drive a few miles to get to something that is considered open space or green space, and so tree equity is a big deal, because in addition to the pandemic, there is the heat exposure that comes along with it. A lot of communities have been able to suppress that with cooling centers. When we think about solutions to extreme heat conditions, and how one neighborhood is five or six or seven degrees hotter than any other neighborhood because it doesn’t have a canopy covering, those gaps in the canopy cover and all that comes with it.

I keep telling my team that we have this tailwind right now that is going to allow us to be as big and as amazing as we always have known we could be, but it just so happens we might have the funding and the formula to get some of these things done and move the needle on equity.

You recently did an interview with Now This covering tree equity and redlining. I know that environmental justice is something that is a priority for your work. Talk about some of those urban forestry initiatives, how partners can be involved, and what that looks like as far as trying to advance the needle on some of those initiatives.

When I think about the conservation districts and the team you have, it’s similar to the conversation I have with some of our extension agents that are at our land grant universities. Let me focus on the justice piece for just a second. Along with justice is knowledge of, access to, assistance with, and then having the ability to receive it with confidence and not feel like you were set up for failure. When I think about technical assistance, we are a very small team of urban and community forestry in the Forest Service. We can’t get the work done on the ground without our partners, our extension agents, our conservation district foresters, our state district foresters, our nonprofit tree organizations, and so justice comes along with ‘if you see something, say something.’ And not every situation will be because there is a high-polluting plant neighboring an affordable housing community. That’s not always the case. Environmental justice matriculates in so many different forms and fashions. For example, we just talked about gaps in canopy cover. Every community should have access to equitable canopy cover so they are cool, so they have the green space and the opportunity for public health and healing, and even on a smaller level, the beautification that comes along with having a green community and someone who’s invested in the health of their trees and their landscape.

It is really, truly, thinking about an environmental experience through the lens of someone who hasn’t experienced it through no fault of their own. Just think about the historical racist policies that have been exposed and amplified that are redlining, and those came out of the federal housing component. And so, if you see how housing has impacted green space, think about the sewer lines and the water quality. When we look at a community, we have to look at the total community, and trees and green space happen to be part of it.

Urban forestry has a number of selling points — increased home values, energy efficiency, helping to connect a growing metropolitan population to the outdoors, improved mental health. What are you seeing as far as selling points in these next few years that you feel help sell your program and the investment into urban forestry?

Those are good examples. One of the other things – we’re having so much conversation within our administration around carbon storage and climate, and there is a lot of plantable land in urban areas. We can layer some really great things in this moment. There is an opportunity for a corporation or organization, if they want, to invest in the communities around them and think through what their climate impacts are and offset some of what may be happening. Urban trees can be part of the solution. And then, what if we have management and maintenance plans for urban forests, and we have huge gaps in planted canopy cover in vulnerable communities, communities that are minority communities or low-income communities? What if we can plan and plant those trees for them to have a more equitable experience? And what if we can hire local talent in those communities to do the work? And so when you ask, ‘What else is selling?’, that’s what’s selling – it’s this opportunity to build out more sustainable communities, but also rolling up our sleeves and thinking outside of our traditional experience of foresters and really truly seeing the needs of the community, not just the natural resources management plan.

You mentioned SUFC earlier. NACD is one of 34 members of the Sustainable Urban Forests Coalition. Tell me the value SUFC brings to the urban forestry community.

You have 34 members who have 34 different organizational structures, some for-profit, some nonprofit, research, whatever it may be, with a common goal to support, sustain and grow healthy urban forests across the country. What do they mean for us? I think of it as the difference between going to urgent care and having a primary care physician. When you go to urgent care and somebody comes in, they’re just thinking about what your current symptoms are to help you get whatever prescription you need so they can get to the next room. But when you have a primary care physician, they have all of your records. They know what your total health situation looks like, and so maybe when you’re not even thinking about it or you don’t see it because you’re so busy as a public servant with your head down trying to deliver and implement the program, they are always out there from their various angle lenses, connections, networks, communities, identifying pieces of policy or legislation that’s been introduced that you haven’t even heard of because your head is down, being the public servant.

Tell me about the urban forestry workforce of tomorrow. What do you see for that? And how do we get to that point where we’re able to really expand upon the number of people we have working as part of this solution?

Let’s just think about the demographic makeup of urban communities across America. To me, that’s what the next generation of urban forestry workforce looks like. I graduated almost 20 years ago with this bachelor’s degree in urban forestry. I can’t say that I see a much more diverse field of urban forestry workforce since I walked across the stage, but it doesn’t mean that now is not the time to be intentional in how we build out our urban forestry workforce. We have so much local talent. We have job loss. We have economic disparity. And we have vulnerable communities. If we pair the environmental and economic needs of urban communities, we can source talent. The work we’re doing around tree planting, tree maintenance and green space and landscape management, we’re not talking about 15 years of university experience. We’re talking about teachable, obtainable, trained jobs with certifications. But I will say, and I can continue to say, this isn’t textbook for me. This isn’t a formula that I’ve read about or a great scenario that I think about. I was the young person who was trained and waiting to receive the job. And so for me, I am emphasizing the transaction and job placement. I think if we give young people, or unemployed people, or anyone who may need a second chance, access to the work we do and knowing that we have our shortcoming and shortfall with trusted relationships in many of these most vulnerable communities because we have perpetuated the policies that have restricted us from putting equitable tree canopy covering, green space into these communities… If we work in these spaces, I think not only will we be able to invest, but we will see our investment sustained as we are hiring locally, training locally, employing locally, and these people in these communities will trust us, and they will take care of their urban forest as much as we want the total urban forest taken care of.

Tags: Forestry, Forestry Notes