Canopy, Equity, and Tree Inventory Data Team Up in PlanIT Geo’s Latest Offering

June 17, 2024 |  Alec Sabatini

In 2023, the USDA Forest Service awarded $1 billion to nearly 400 projects to expand access to trees and green spaces in communities nationwide. Garland, Texas was one awardee, receiving $1 million to increase tree canopy in neighborhoods with minimal coverage.

The core objective of the IRA grants are to enhance urban forest benefits in underserved areas. Grantees, such as the City of Garland, must demonstrate that 100% of their project benefits go to disadvantaged communities.

This is an incredible opportunity, especially since IRA grants are available with no match requirements, but grant winners and future applicants must have a plan for tracking their efforts closely. To support this process, PlanIT Geo recently released the Land Cover and Tree Equity (LCTE) Data Pack, an add-on to TreePlotter™.

The LCTE Data Pack provides inventory and reference layers of disadvantaged communities and redlining areas combined with land cover statistics, all visualized within TreePlotter’s interface. With LCTE data you can prioritize projects at the census block scale by reviewing canopy coverage within disadvantaged areas.

Below we’ll explore how the LCTE Data Pack supports equitable urban forest project planning, with examples from the City of Garland.

What is the Land Cover and Tree Equity Data Pack?

Above: Filtering for Disadvantaged Areas with below average Urban Tree Canopy.

The LCTE Data Pack includes:

Historical redlining areas:

Each area is encoded with the redlining classification attribute, canopy cover, and land cover classification percentages. Redlining data is only available for select cities.

Garland’s Plans For Land Cover and Tree Equity Data

The City of Garland has two main goals for its Land Cover and Tree Equity data: tracking and storytelling.

As grant dollars are used to plant trees and conduct maintenance, all work will be tracked down to the census block to confirm everything is actually within CEJST disadvantaged areas. To do so, parks staff will plot points for new trees and update tree maintenance records into TreePlotter from the field.

This work tracking supports more than just grant reporting. City of Garland Parks Director, Matt Grubisich, also wants to better understand tree survivability. “We want to track where each tree goes and check its condition over five years to gauge which species thrive and better inform property owners about specific tree care plans.”

LCTE data will also support Garland in telling the story of how its $1 million grant translated directly into greater benefits for the neighborhoods in need.

I can pull up [within TreePlotter] how many trees we planted in each census block and calculate the ecosystem benefits. We can show these specific areas will increase canopy by X amount, have improved climate resilience, and show how those benefits create a return on investment

-Matt Grubisich, City of Garland Parks Director

A full, data-backed narrative will help Matt build buy-in so he can continue to raise money, and keep momentum going with future planting projects.

Canopy, Equity, and Tree Inventory Data Working Together

The Land Cover and Tree Equity Data Pack was designed to amplify and simplify equitable urban forest planning. Curious about this add-on? We’d be happy to have a conversation specific to your community. Please reach out with any questions here or contact your PlanIT Geo account representative.