When people hear “urban forestry,” they often think it’s a brand-new buzzword. In reality, the idea of managing trees in cities has been around for over a century—long before anyone put a formal name on it.

Urban forestry didn’t begin with a single date or law—it grew out of cities slowly realizing that street trees weren’t decoration, they were infrastructure.

This article walks through where urban forestry came from, when it became its own field, and how we got from “street tree crews” to full urban forestry programs.

The Short Answer

There’s no single birthday for urban forestry, but we can roughly say:

• Late 1800s–early 1900s: Cities start planting and managing street trees in a more organized way.
• Mid-1900s: The idea of managing all the trees in a city—not just individual park or street trees—begins to take shape.
• 1960s–1970s: The term “urban forestry” enters the conversation, and the field starts to take on its modern form.
• 1980s–today: Urban forestry becomes a recognized profession with formal degrees, city departments, certifications, and canopy goals.

To understand what the field looks like now, it helps to start with a basic definition of what urban forestry is.

Before “Urban Forestry”: Early City Tree Efforts

Long before anyone said “urban forestry,” cities were already wrestling with trees.

1800s: Shade, streets, and aesthetics

In the 1800s, many cities:

• Planted street trees for shade and beauty
• Established early parks and boulevards lined with trees
• Hired people to tend public plantings (though they weren’t called urban foresters)

These efforts were often piecemeal:

• Trees planted along one street by a civic group
• A park superintendent caring for trees in a single park
• No unified view of “the urban forest” as a whole

Trees were valued—but mostly for shade, beauty, and status, not yet as critical infrastructure.

1900s: Street Trees Become a Real Management Problem

As cities paved more roads, ran more overhead wires, and built more houses, trees moved from decoration to management headache.

Early to mid-1900s

Cities began to:

• Create street tree ordinances and planting standards
• Assign responsibility for tree care to specific departments (often parks or public works)
• Deal with large-scale problems like Dutch elm disease, which killed millions of elms in North America and showed what happens when a city relies heavily on a single species

These challenges pushed cities to think more systematically:

• Which trees should we plant?
• How do we budget for pruning and removals?
• What happens if one pest wipes out a common street tree?

The thinking was starting to shift from “these trees” to “our tree population.”

1960s–1970s: Urban Forestry Gets Its Name

The phrase “urban forestry” began to show up in the mid-20th century as researchers and practitioners realized they were dealing with a unique blend of forestry, horticulture, and city planning.

During this period:

• Universities started to study trees in city environments, not just rural forests.
• Professionals recognized that managing trees in streets, parks, and yards required different tools and thinking than managing timber forests.
• The term “urban forestry” became a way to tie it all together.

Instead of asking, “How do we prune this street tree?” people started asking, “How do we manage the urban forest in this city?”—the same big-picture view we talk about in our Urban Forestry guide.

1980s–2000s: Urban Forestry Becomes a Profession

By the late 20th century, urban forestry had moved from concept to established field.

We start to see:

• Dedicated city urban forestry divisions or programs
• Urban forestry degree programs and courses at universities
• Growth of professional organizations focused on arboriculture and urban trees
• Development of tree inventories, canopy studies, and management plans

Cities began to:

• Track the number and condition of their public trees
• Set canopy cover goals for neighborhoods
• Address equity—which areas were shaded and which were not
• Integrate trees into stormwater, climate, and transportation planning

On the ground, homeowners and businesses worked with certified arborists and tree services—doing the day-to-day pruning, removals, and planting that make urban forestry real.

2000s–Today: Urban Forestry as Green Infrastructure

In recent decades, urban forestry has increasingly been framed as green infrastructure—living systems that do real work for cities.

Modern urban forestry is tied to:

• Heat-island mitigation: Using trees to cool streets and neighborhoods
• Stormwater management: Reducing runoff and flooding with better canopy and soil
• Public health: Improving air quality, mental health, and outdoor comfort
• Climate resilience: Helping cities adapt to hotter, drier, more extreme conditions

Today, urban forestry isn’t just about avoiding branch failures—it’s about:

• Where trees are missing
• Which species will survive in future climates
• How to balance trees with housing, roads, and utilities
• How to make shade and green space more equitable across a city

Has Urban Forestry Always Been Called That?

No—and that’s an important point.

Many people have been doing the work of urban forestry for over a century under different titles:

• Park superintendents
• City gardeners
• Street tree crews
• Municipal arborists

The term “urban forestry” simply gave a name and framework to what they were already doing—and expanded it to include planning, equity, climate, and long-term canopy goals.

So when you ask, “When did urban forestry start?” you’re really asking:

• When did people start thinking about all city trees together as a forest?
• When did we recognize that this forest needed its own science, tools, and profession?

That shift happened gradually across the mid–late 1900s and solidified in the late 20th century.

What Does This History Mean for Homeowners?

Knowing the history of urban forestry helps explain why certain things work the way they do today:

• Why your city has tree ordinances or rules about street trees
• Why there are planting standards and recommended species lists
• Why diversity matters (to avoid “another Dutch elm disease” scenario)
• Why professional tree care is about safety, structure, and long-term health—not just hacking branches

Urban forestry has evolved from simple planting efforts to a coordinated practice that tries to balance:

• Safety vs. canopy
• Infrastructure vs. roots and branches
• Short-term work vs. long-term forest health

You’re part of that story every time you water a young tree, choose what to plant, or call a professional about a problem tree.

The Bottom Line

Urban forestry didn’t begin with one date on a calendar. It:

• Grew out of early city tree planting and park management
• Evolved through hard lessons (like major pest outbreaks)
• Took shape as a named field in the mid–late 1900s
• Has become a key piece of how modern cities think about heat, water, health, and quality of life

Today, whenever we talk about urban forestry, we’re standing on more than a century of trial, error, and learning about the trees that live where we do.

And the next chapter? That’s being written right now—tree by tree, street by street, neighborhood by neighborhood.