Urban Forest Assessment Begins In Fairfax City

Press release from the City of Fairfax :

06/08/2023 9:00 AM

Fairfax City has begun an urban forest assessment that will be completed in two phases: a physical inventory of trees on city-owned land and an analysis of the city’s urban tree canopy.

Starting in late June and continuing through August, field staff from PlanIT Geo, an urban forestry consulting firm, will document information about trees growing on city property. The purpose of this work is to establish an inventory of city-tree locations and general tree attributes such as tree species, size, and condition. The tree inventory will then be used by city staff to guide tree maintenance and manage workflows, and residents will be able to view tree locations online.

All field team members are arborists certified by the International Society of Arboriculture. The team will geo-locate trees and collect data on trees located in city rights-of-way, at city facilities, in city parks, and along city trails. Trees growing on private property, including streets and common areas maintained by homeowners associations, will not be documented.

Information will be collected on digital devices; no physical tags will be attached to trees. The team will not remove any trees. Any tree maintenance occurring during the study period will be part of normal city operations.

The second phase of the project is an urban tree canopy assessment. The city’s urban tree canopy will be assessed using aerial imagery and through GIS analysis. All land within the city boundaries, regardless of ownership, will be classified by land cover types (i.e., tree cover, shrub, impervious surfaces, bare soil, and water) to determine the percent tree canopy coverage within the city.

The assessment will quantify ecosystem service benefits of the city’s urban tree canopy by:

The final report is anticipated to be completed by this fall and will be available to the public.

The Tree City USA® program is sponsored by the Arbor Day Foundation in cooperation with the USDA Forest Service and the National Association of State Foresters.

This press release was produced by the City of Fairfax. The views expressed here are the author’s own.