Port of Bellingham Tree Canopy Assessment

PROJECT BACKGROUND
Tree canopy plays a crucial role in balancing the natural and built environments in urban areas. While industrial and commercial activity are vital to economic prosperity, they can also strain local ecosystems. Tree canopy in port landscapes serves as a powerful tool for mitigating these impacts—enhancing stormwater management by reducing runoff, filtering pollutants, and stabilizing coastal areas. Additionally, trees contribute to improved air quality, reduce the urban heat island effect, and create natural buffers that boost the aesthetic and ecological resilience of port operations. This assessment analyzed tree canopy (TC) and possible planting areas (PPA) in designated subareas within the Port of Bellingham, providing essential data to support long-term environmental and climate-action planning. By identifying opportunities to expand and protect canopy cover, this factsheet offers actionable insights to help the Port of Bellingham optimize the benefits of its canopy

Project Methodology

This assessment, conducted by PlanIT Geo in partnership with data provider EarthDefine, utilized high resolution (60-centimeter) multi-spectral imagery from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP) collected in 2023 to classify land cover types within the Port of Bellingham’s (PoB) Area of Interest (AOI).

The AOI for this assessment comprises five designated subareas within the Port of Bellingham as follows: Blaine, Bellingham International Airport, Marine Drive Park, Squalicum Harbor, and Fairhaven. A map of these areas can be found on Page 3 of this factsheet.

The results provide a near-current view of land cover and will support the development of new strategies and the revision of existing plans to protect and expand the tree canopy. Modern machine learning techniques were applied to create a reproducible land cover dataset, ensuring uniform comparisons in future tree canopy and land cover assessments. This factsheet follows US Forest Service standards, reporting tree canopy metrics as a percentage of the land area (excluding water bodies) unless stated otherwise.

Additionally, the ecosystem services have been evaluated using the i-Tree Landscape tool, which estimates their monetary value by applying standardized economic models and incorporating field collected data to quantify benefits derived from current landscape conditions. These outputs are further refined using the tree canopy acreage obtained from this high-resolution assessment, ensuring more precise calculations.