Urban Forestry – The Bus Stops Here

When growing Florida’s urban forests together, when advancing our professional careers through education and field experience, when real-world windows replace virtual windows, when conversational networking occurs, and when moving forward on down the road, you don’t want to miss the bus.

Bus Tour Field Trips

Bus tour field trips have been popular events at the 2025 Urban Forestry Summit and the 2025 Trees Florida conference, hosted by the Florida Urban Forestry Council (FUFC) and the Florida Chapter of the International Society of Arboriculture (FL-ISA), respectively. The bus tours took urban forestry on the road, as the best arboricultural, forestry, and green-industry professionals climbed aboard and occupied seats.

The Urban Forestry Summit bus tour, hosted by the FUFC, highlighted Gainesville’s “living green” Madera neighborhood, bioswales installations, downtown Gainesville streetscapes, and development plans for Tom Petty Park. All stops introduced innovative projects that came to fruition not by chance, but by determination and sound urban forestry concepts and principles. Even better, the stories were told by Gainesville’s Urban Forestry staff, who were passionate and experienced with each point of interest.

Trees Florida Conference and Trade Show

The FUFC partnered with FL-ISA to include an urban forestry bus tour at the FL-ISA 2025 TREES FLORIDA Conference and Trade Show. Buses toured targeted attractions around the perimeter of Palm Coast, FL. Bus stops included the unique estuary system at Long Creek Nature Preserve; a glimpse of the rich natural and cultural history of old Florida at Princes Place Preserve, and guided tours at the St. Johns Botanical Gardens & Nature Preserve. The remote, peri-urban attractions provided a striking view of the interconnection to a rapidly developing state of Florida.

Why a bus tour? Because urban forestry is on the move. Urban forestry is happening everywhere. Florida is in the business of development and urbanization. The exhibition was not limited to scheduled stops. Urban Forestry was seen all along the way as buses traveled from one destination to another. If we want to move forward and get where we want to go, Florida’s green industry must be moving in the same direction.

Roads provide a great segue into urban forestry topics. Highways, streets, roads, bridges, railways, and other transportation corridors are a critical part of our built environments. They most certainly have an impact on the urban forest resources and economic opportunities that link together our urban, suburban, rural, commercial, industrial, and agricultural centers.

Tree Tours Offer Insight

Destinations in town provided insight into traditional urban forestry challenges between multi-use gray and green infrastructure – to include streetscapes, landscapes, parks, core municipal investments, overhead & underground utilities, population density, community development, and complex planning, zoning, decision making.

It was obvious, just looking out the window as the buses traveled rural routes, that peri-urban counties are being primed for economic growth and development. Rural routes and destinations brought attention to traditional forest land use management; utility substations where transmission & distribution lines meet; lengthy spans of communication cables; right-of-way setbacks; wildland-urban interfaces; urban forest fragmentation; rapid changes to ecosystems and land use; wildfire management; lack of resources; and the far reach of urban forestry management.

The professional careers of Urban forestry continually intersect. Diverse in scope and discipline, each is closely linked with a synergy that will ultimately benefit Florida’s natural and developing future. They may not always appear to be on the same page, or seated at the same table. The urban forestry field trip can at least have them seated on the same bus and moving in the same direction – even if it’s only for the length of the tour. Bringing the various stakeholders together may be the greatest attribute for conferences, summits, workshops, webinars, and bus tours. A united urban forest industry is all about solutions – cost-effective, sustainable, and obtainable solutions in sync with career opportunities and growth. When growing Florida’s urban forests together, you don’t want to miss the bus.

Special thanks to the coach providers, bus drivers, tour guides, administrators & organizers, sponsors, and participants who made the ride possible.