Ecosystem services, ecological integrity, and native species planting: How to balance these ideas in urban forest management?

Many North American municipalities are developing management plans to guide major investments in their urban forest. These efforts reflect a recent shift in urban forest management, towards ecosystem service provisioning and ecological integrity. The objective of this short communication is to examine how municipal urban forestry plans balance ecosystem services and ecological integrity through a case study of Ontario, Canada. Our review found that all plans emphasize ecosystem service provisioning and ecological integrity, as well as the importance of planting native species, but the majority of plans do not operationalize these ideas. Furthermore, their is tension and uncertainty between managing for ecosystem services and ecological integrity that is neither acknowledged nor addressed. We argue that the tension between ecosystem service provisioning and ecological integrity related to the role of native species can be reduced by recognizing that non-native species are appropriate to achieve both ideas in urban landscapes. A shift away from prioritizing native species would also better align management plans with current practice.