For decades some Washington, D.C. developers have willingly cut down Heritage trees (meaning they measure over 100” in circumference) with the calculation that it is worth paying the “hefty” fine. There were 27 of these illegal removals in 2021 alone. Thankfully, an emergency bill was passed this month that gives City arborists the authority to issue Stop Work Orders when a Heritage tree is being cut down. While this measure is admittedly a stop-gap solution, there is another bill currently under review that will strengthen the penalties for harming protected trees.
"This is a great step to get stringent tree protection policies established and supported in a major city. The more cities that do this, the better for urban forests," Ian Hanou.
The Florida Urban Forestry Council’s Friends of Our Urban Forest awards recognizes outstanding achievement by organizations and individuals who promote, manage, lead, and advocate for urban forests in their communities.
Special shout outs to our client winners: Florida International University for Outstanding Urban Forest Program and Dalton Smith for Outstanding Professional!
A keystone moment in tree care is sharing an estimate with a new potential client. It’s the small window of time you have to demonstrate how your company’s value and expertise are better than the competition and worth the cost. However, most clients don’t have the technical knowledge to judge the true quality of the tree work being proposed. Instead, they have to make a decision based on what they can understand, which usually comes down to three Ps:
There are 1.7 million acres of natural forested land embedded within U.S. cities. These forest patches are unique spaces in cities and provide a raft of benefits to urban residents. But despite their prevalence and importance, these forests are often underfunded and lack consistent management.
The Forests in Cities Network is a national network dedicated to promoting and advancing healthy forested natural areas in cities across America through science, management, partnerships, and communications. In this session, you’ll learn about the value of forested natural areas, and the advancements made by this network, including an innovative online resource library – the first and only curated source for urban forested natural areas managers and other practitioners to explore best practices, research, and case studies. Finally, we’ll share a management framework for urban natural areas that draw on common practice in rural forests – a practice called silviculture, which relies heavily on spatial analysis.
A Volunteer Led Tree Inventory in the UK’s Second Largest City
Birmingham Tree People (BTP) is a nonprofit organization that has been doing incredible work to preserve and grow the vast urban forest of Birmingham. Trained volunteers are working their way across the city, collecting data in TreePlotter™, and creating a unified tree database for the entire city.
TreePlotter INVENTORY and PARKS clients can now remove limits to their tree or asset reports.
Reports without limits will include photos, but not associated Google street or map view. If you are interested in updating a report reach out to our support team at support@planitgeo.com
Want to work at the forefront of trees and technology? We’re hiring for multiple positions, including an Account Executive position accepting applications now.
How can you quantify the physical and mental health benefits of being near nature? Better yet, how can you quantify it in a simple, actionable form so planners and policy makers can use it? We discuss the answers that big data and machine learning can offer with our newest partner, NatureQuant.
Last Monday our arborist TJ encountered "the largest tree I’ve measured in one of our inventories to date!" This Indian Rubber Tree (Ficus elastica) measures at a 46’ circumference and 176” DBH in Boynton Beach, Florida.
