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Urban forest inventory system provides needed
information about all city trees
By Jeff Wooten, City Arborist
Posted on December 31, 2010
It is very likely that, as
a resident of Clovis, you don’t realize that you live in
a forest – an urban forest composed of tens of thousands
of trees comprised of more than 100 different species.
Many of these trees are
growing in your front and backyards, and on the grounds
of apartment buildings, shopping centers and businesses.
Trees on private property are the responsibility of the
owner of the property, whether residential or
commercial.
It’s difficult to estimate
the actual number, but in many cities similar to Clovis,
studies have shown that trees growing on private
property account for about 50 percent of a city’s total
urban forest. The other half are growing on public
property – areas where the responsibility of caring for
the trees lies with a public agency such as the school
district or the city.
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Photos Courtesy of CUSD
Today
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It is no small task, no
matter what the quantity, to properly maintain trees.
However, for a homeowner, a short walk around the yard
can allow each tree to be checked and its condition to
be assessed. Even for large commercial properties, a
property manager or tree maintenance contractor can see
all of the trees at that location in one visit.
But imagine if you were
responsible for as many as 50,000 trees, growing in
hundreds of locations scattered throughout the city.
This is the task that the Clovis Tree Maintenance
Division faces daily. In order to provide the citizens
of Clovis with a more efficient and effective program of
tree maintenance, the decision was made to perform a
complete and comprehensive inventory of the city’s
trees.
Businesses routinely
perform inventories in order to know how much they have,
what they have, what they need, where things are and
what condition they’re in, so that customers are well
served. This is good management. These are exactly the
same reasons that Clovis has decided to perform an
inventory of its trees. In order to provide citizens
with efficient, effective service regarding the care and
maintenance of their publicly owned trees, it is good
management to know the quantity of trees, the types of
trees, where the trees are located and the condition of
the trees. Managers need this information to make good
decisions regarding the allocation of resources for
maintaining Clovis’ urban forest, and for assuring its
sustainability.
The city applied for and
was awarded a grant from the state to perform the
inventory. The grant, which is funded through
Proposition 40 proceeds, will pay half of the total cost
of the project. The inventory began in October, and will
take four to six months to complete. The collection of
data will be performed by the Davey Resource Group, a
division of the Davey Tree Expert Co. Their arborists
will be in the field, visiting each individual city
tree, collecting information on the species, size,
location, condition, maintenance needs and other
characteristics relevant to the effective management of
urban trees.
The data will then be
organized into a tree maintenance software program
provided by Davey called TreeKeeper. The software allows
the end user to easily access the mountain of data
collected during the inventory, and is integrated with
the city’s geographic information system, meaning that
the inventory information will be available as both a
database and in maps that will show specific tree
locations throughout Clovis. Armed with this
information, the division can prioritize its tree
maintenance efforts by need, and accurate records will
be available for managers to use in determining the
present and future costs of maintaining the urban
forest.
The goal of having a
complete tree inventory is to provide the citizens of
Clovis with a healthy, beautiful, safe and sustainable
urban forest. Trees in our community provide us with
many benefits. They shade and cool our homes,
businesses, parked cars and parks in the heat of the
summer. They clean our air by removing carbon dioxide
and other pollutants and adding oxygen. They can
increase property values of homes. And, of course, they
make our city more beautiful.
If you step outside your
home, look around your yard or your grounds, and notice
the trees that are growing there. Then try to imagine
the area without trees. Think about Old Town, and how
bare and stark it would seem if the large trees weren’t
there. How inviting would any of our parks be if there
were no trees to provide shade and the feel of nature?
Properly managed, our city’s trees will be here for all
the citizens of Clovis to enjoy for many years to come.
Our new Clovis Urban Forest Inventory will help those
who care for the trees to make that happen.
*This article was originally
published in CUSD Today, December 2010, and is
republished on
ExperienceClovis.com with permission. All rights reserved.
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