Tree Canopy Assessments
Tree Canopy refers to the layer of tree leaves, branches, and stems that provide tree coverage of the ground when viewed from above. Today, many communities are planting trees in an effort to become more sustainable and livable. Improving a city’s urban tree canopy can have numerous benefits, including reducing summer peak temperatures and air pollution, enhancing property values, providing wildlife habitat, providing aesthetic benefits, and reducing building energy consumption. Studies throughout the United States have repeatedly shown that most communities are losing tree canopy due to a wide range of threats, including insects, disease, natural disasters and development.
paleBLUEdot’s Tree Canopy Assessment can help a community measure, monitor, and improve tree cover over time, and combat threats that can lead tree canopy loss. A Tree Canopy Assessment supports a community's understanding of the extent of City-Wide tree canopy, grass, and impervious surface coverage. With this understanding, the community can establish appropriate goals and strategies to improve the environmental impacts and opportunities of tree canopy and general land coverage within the City. As a visionary planning document, the goals established for the City should be a “stretch” while also being achievable.