Recognition of the ecological importance and environmental benefits of urban forests has led to more widespread interest in creation of street tree inventories. With a complete street tree inventory, urban foresters and community groups can make informed decisions about tree species selection when replacing declining or dead trees in their city, diversification of the urban forest community, replacement of invasive tree species, and assessment of current species composition to plan for care or replacement of trees vulnerable to attack by introduced herbivores or diseases. In this project, the goal was to engage university students and faculty in a collaboration with PA Bureau of Forestry foresters, the Pottsville, PA City Manager and the volunteer-led Shade Tree Commission to conduct a complete inventory to better manage the urban forest in this community. We chose to use the iTree program app to collect data in the field and to produce figures and summary tables in preparing a report for the PA Bureau of Forestry and City of Pottsville officials. The iTree program provides information about ecosystem services, such as the cooling effect of trees for the city, based on information about tree species, tree numbers, and size.
Results/Conclusions
Through this project we completed a street tree inventory for the entire city of Pottsville, PA, including a tree survey for an historic cemetery with many noteworthy specimen trees. Following initial training in use of the iTree software, tree identification, measurement of DBH, and evaluation of tree health, students on the team designed a strategy for dividing the city into manageable quadrants to efficiently survey trees. One student assumed responsibility for transferring data daily from field sampling devices to the master computer file. The report that we generated provided the City Manager with estimates of the benefits of the Pottsville urban forest in terms of community cooling and energy saved, reduction in storm water runoff important in community reporting of storm water management efforts to government environmental agencies, the proportion of ash trees, vulnerable to emerald ash borer, in the Pottsville urban forest, a first examination of tree health and a list of trees that might need professional arboricultural attention. This project provided benefit to the students who conducted the inventory and managed the data, and helped the university build or strengthen ties to professional foresters and to the Pottsville City Manager and Shade Tree Commission.