What is a Tree Inventory Management Plan?
Tree Identification and Inventory
A tree inventory saves you time and money now, while providing continuing benefits, year after year. When you locate and identify hazardous trees, you greatly reduce liability for personal injuries and property damage. In addition, you reduce tree maintenance costs because we can proactively create strategic work orders for your trees , making our job easier and more efficient.
A healthy tree canopy adds great value to the outdoor experience. When you can show the value of the trees in their community – how they improve air quality, provide shade and increase property values – they begin to care for the trees. And, that’s a win for everyone!
The simplest form of inventory is a tree count. It is the quickest, easiest, cheapest inventory, and it can be done by anyone who can count. The results would be useful to someone who might want to know the number of trees on a given property or within a certain area, but a simple tree count has major limitations. Almost immediately questions such as “What kinds of trees are there?” or “How big are they?” are asked.
Gathering information about trees is expensive and time consuming. Collecting more information than is needed is wasteful, but gathering too little information would necessitate redoing the inventory. The beauty of this service is it can be done year round and our minimum standard is to count, identify and tag every tree on your property that you want included in the plan. Prevention and Preemptive care is what a tree inventory can provide and is by far cheaper than waiting till something goes wrong or worse a removal is needed.
Why is an inventory of trees so important?
There are several reasons. First, trees are a community resource. They produce shade, absorb air pollutants and mitigate storm water runoff. They have a direct, measurable positive economic benefit to a community. Second, trees provide psychological and aesthetic benefits. Third, trees are long lived, and as such, need to be considered part of the capital assets of the community. Fourth, trees need periodic maintenance. Because they are long lived, they cannot be ignored without adverse consequences to the community. And finally, they are large organisms and can create conflicts with and cause damage to homes, cars and other community assets.
Urban Forest Management Plans
Capital City Tree Experts has developed urban forest management plans for many of our clients. Using data collected from your inventory, we format a plan that not only reduces hazards and liabilities but maintains a safe, healthy and happy urban forest. Your plan will include:
- Executive Summary.
- Tree inventory results and highlights.
- Benefits of a Healthy Urban Forest.
- How to implement your management program.
- How to improve maintenance efficiency.
- Maintenance priorities based on arborists observation.
- Long term, proactive urban forest maintenance plan & schedule.
- Recommended species list.
Repeating the Inventory
Because trees are biological organisms, they create a dynamic environment. The forest or landscape is not static; it is constantly changing. Therefore, while data from the first inventory is used to guide development of the tree management, maintenance, or planting plan, the trees are changing, creating the need to repeat the inventory after a period of years.
The second inventory can be more valuable than the first because an inventory is a picture of the trees when data are collected. The second picture not only provides the basis for the revised management plan, it can be compared with the first and reveal the changes and trends that are occurring on your property.
If you are interested in learning more about this awesome service or want to get on our schedule, give us a call today, 608-838-8522.
