Tree Inventory Planning for Actionable Data
September 26, 2024 | Rocky Yosek and Jack Myrna
All tree inventories include some type of assessment of trees in a defined area, but they vary widely in scope, execution, and cost. A well-planned tree inventory answers a community’s top urban forestry questions and provides the maximum information return for the capital available.
Here we will review tree inventory planning and the various customizable elements to help communities get the most bang for their buck. For a deeper dive into this topic, please check out our webinar: Tree Inventory Services You Never Knew You Needed.
Tree Inventory Planning 101
A tree inventory is a powerful tool for any urban forest program as it’s much easier to manage trees when you know the quantity and quality. Other benefits of a tree inventory include:
- Measuring species composition and tree age diversity
- Identifying high risk trees to prioritize maintenance
- Comprehensive statistics for internal tracking and public engagement
Funding The Inventory
Urban forestry programs often have to make do with budgets below their needs and it can be difficult to finance singular, capital intensive projects. Grants are a great way to supplement an urban forestry budget with one-time funds for a tree inventory.
The surge in grant funding from the Inflation Reduction Act continues to ripple across the country through direct grants, pass-through partner grants, and state grant programs, and has already funded hundreds of projects with tree inventories. Many states offer grant programs specifically for inventories and sometimes have a statewide tree inventory your community can learn from and contribute to.
You can also mold the inventory to best fit within your budget. An approach growing in popularity over the last few years is the phased inventory, a full inventory completed in stages over several years. Communities still get a comprehensive understanding of their tree needs but the financial burden is distributed over a longer period of time.
Setting The Scope
Once you have an idea of the funding available, the next step is to determine what trees will be included in the inventory. You get the most insight from full coverage of the urban forest and all public trees, however budget and timing constraints may require a narrower focus.
Our Field Services team’s most common inventory areas are public right-of-ways (ROWs), parks, public properties, and sometimes public open spaces. You will likely need to do some prioritizing on what areas are best to inventory now and which can wait for a future inventory.
When deciding how to prioritize, tree equity is an important factor in the equation. Many communities want to make sure the inventory covers historically underserved or disadvantaged neighborhoods. This ensures visibility on the urban forestry conditions in those areas and helps appropriately plan future management and maintenance efforts.
At Right: Charlotte’s top ten prioritized tree inventory collection areas
Timing the Tree Inventory
Another consideration is whether to time the inventory for leaf-on or leaf-off seasons. Both have advantages and drawbacks. The leaf-on season improves the accuracy and speed of tree identification. However, the full canopy makes it harder to observe concerns like codominant stem cracks or hanging limbs.
The leaf-off season makes it easier to see the structure of the tree, though identification becomes harder. Additionally, you will not be able to track the presence of pests or pathogens that only feed on live foliage. If there are pests or pathogens of concern, then making sure they’ll be visible during the inventory is crucial.
Choosing Data Fields
Deciding what data fields should be collected depends on the goals for your inventory. Data fields can be customized and range from general to specific and involved. The standard fields you always want to include are: location, condition, diameter at standard height (DSH), tree observations, location observations, management recommendations, and often risk assessments.
Customizing data fields can make a big impact in simplifying your future urban forest management. For example, you could include check boxes for specific pests or management actions, such as “Treat for EAB”. Use your state level resources to get a good understanding of what pests or invasive species could possibly be identified in your area. We help our clients add these fields into the inventory software beforehand, so if it’s around, you’ll get visibility and be well prepared to develop a mitigation plan.
At Left: Some of the tree management data fields in TreePlotter INVENTORY™
Taking Full Advantage of a Budget Surplus
It’s not uncommon for tree inventory projects to end up with a budget surplus after the initial project scope is complete as it’s better to overestimate the number of trees to be inventoried. It’s much easier to deal with a budget surplus than to have 80% of trees inventoried and have to shut down, reapply for funds, and restart the process.
The PlanIT Geo Field Services team has a variety of offerings to get the maximum value from any leftover budget. For example, instead of getting a basic delivery of the inventory results, communities can get a Summary Report, essentially a miniature management plan providing deeper analysis on planting spaces, species diversity, size classes, and recommendations for future tree management. A Summary Report helps communities tease out insights and trends from large inventory datasets to make it easier to start translating the data into action items.
Another flexible option is for our ISA Certified Arborists to go back into the field for specialized inventorying. For example, this could be an inventory of planting sites in low canopy areas or a sampling of private parcels. We could also filter the completed inventory to identify certain trees to revisit for more in depth risk assessments, such as poor condition trees over a certain size. One more surplus option is an extended subscription to a tree inventory software to keep your data management consistent over time. We’ll cover tree inventory software in detail in the next section.
Post-Tree Inventory Planning
The real value of a tree inventory depends on what you do with your new mother lode of tree data. Here are a few tips for leveraging your tree inventory data to chart an informed course forward.
Tree Inventory Software
Tree inventory software keeps your tree data accessible and actionable. With an array of analysis tools and reports, TreePlotter™ INVENTORY was designed specifically to make it simpler for communities to work with their inventory data.
Tree inventory software makes it possible to answer your urban forestry questions in just a few clicks. Need to know how many ash trees have been treated in a certain park? Grab your tablet while out in the field, apply a couple filters, and the answer is at your fingertips.
Software also solidifies communication within your team and across departments. Custom reports make it simple to keep department heads in loop with updates on work orders completed and work orders still open. By establishing the tree inventory software as the shared platform for all tree-related information it drastically reduces the need for constant follow-ups, as all teams can reference tree information in real time.
Assign Responsibility for Inventory Upkeep
A tree inventory is a snapshot of an urban forest. Trees are always changing and the inventory data loses value over time if it is not updated. To continue to get the most from your tree inventory, maintenance work, removals, new plantings, and general observations should all be tracked in your chosen management software.
While the tree inventory is being completed, it’s important to determine who all will be responsible for keeping the data updated and make sure they are trained and comfortable with associated inventory software. We frequently conduct training sessions with our clients at the end of a project and can also expand the training to review the goals of a community’s urban forest and how tree inventory data can support those goals.
Get To Work, Share Those Stats
With inventory data in hand, you’ve got a powerful tool for planning and prioritizing budgeting, maintenance, removals, and planting. Communities can begin working through the identified high priority trees and then work towards proactive pruning cycles for the remaining trees.
Tree inventory statistics, particularly the ecosystem benefits, are helpful for communicating the value of the urban forest to city leadership. It’s also good information for use in public engagement. Many of our clients allow the public to access a limited view of their tree inventory software or create an interactive, public-facing map for residents to explore. Community residents appreciate the transparency and it fosters greater public support for your urban forestry initiatives.
Ready to Get Started?
PlanIT Geo’s team of certified ISA arborists has completed more than 100 urban tree inventory projects across the country, totaling over 1 million trees. Please drop us a line here, and we can start a conversation specific to the inventory needs and goals of your community.
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Stay informed on the urban forestry industry with our monthly TREEbune newsletter, live webinars, and industry-specific content delivered to your inbox.
Urban Forestry Webinars
PlanIT Geo has a substantial on-demand webinar library. Get CEU credits, grow your knowledge base, and stay current on cutting edge industry technology.
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We love to share industry-related news, software tutorials, blogs, and company news across our social channels.