Section 4799.08.

The purpose of this chapter is to:

(a) Promote the use of urban forest resources for purposes of increasing integrated projects with multiple benefits in urban communities.

(b) Arrest the decline of our urban forest resources, facilitate the planting of trees in urban communities, and improve the quality of the environment in urban areas through the establishment and improved management of urban forest resources.

(c) Facilitate the creation of permanent jobs in tree maintenance and related urban forestry activities in neighborhood, local, and regional urban areas.

(d) Optimize the potential of tree and vegetative cover in reducing energy consumption and producing fuel and other products.

(e) Encourage the coordination of state and local agency activities in urban forestry and related programs and encourage maximum citizen participation in their development and implementation.

(f) Prevent the introduction and spread within this state of known and potentially damaging or devastating pests and diseases, including, but not limited to, Dutch elm disease, pine pitch canker, sudden oak death disease, the Asian long-horned beetle, and mistletoe.

(g) Reduce or eliminate tree loss resulting from these diseases and others that are identified.

(Amended by Stats. 2008, Ch. 438, Sec. 2. Effective January 1, 2009.)