Street tree mortality and demography: Case studies and general concepts

Lara Roman is a Research Ecologist with the US Forest Service, Northern Research Station, Philadelphia Field Station. She studies the temporal dynamics of urban forests, including tree mortality and growth, canopy cover change, historical development of urban forests, species composition change, and citizen science monitoring. Her studies take a participatory research approach, collaborating with practitioners for study design and implementation. She has been funded by the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center, the TREE Fund, the Garden Club of America, the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, and the Schwabacher and Berkeley Fellowships. She received a PhD at the University of California, Berkeley, and a Bachelors in Biology and Masters of Environmental Studies from the University of Pennsylvania. Roman is currently the chair of the Urban Tree Growth & Longevity (UTGL) Working Group, an affiliate of the International Society of Arboriculture, and she serves on the Citizen Science Core Team of the Forest Service. Through the UTGL, she is also leading the development of standard protocols for urban tree monitoring.