Niagara Falls calls in tree experts

stcatharinesstandard.ca
By Ray Spiteri
Sept. 15, 2016

Arborists have collected valuable information from about 30,000 trees in Niagara Falls as part of the city’s urban forest management plan.

The Davey Resource Group, which has been a professional tree-service company since 1930, was hired by the municipality to record certain attributes from trees along city streets, parks and cemeteries. The attributes included tree identification, measurements, condition ratings and appraisal values, using the latest in GPS (global positioning system) and GIS (geographic information system) technology.

 The city will use this data to better manage its growing assets during the next several years. The information can be inputted into peer-reviewed analysis tools such as i-Tree to better quantify - in monetary terms - the ecological benefits urban forests provide for the community, such as storm-water retention and carbon sequestration.

 John Morocco, operations superintendent for the municipality, said the data being collected will also be used by city staff to further refine ongoing maintenance strategies, such as Emerald Ash Borer management, hazard mitigation, and planning for biodiversity.

“The real impetus for this was when Emerald Ash Borer came and started to really demolish the trees,” he said. “About 3,000 trees unfortunately are going to be lost to Emerald Ash, so we thought, ‘OK, it’s time to really get a good handle on this asset and understand what we have out there, and the condition that it’s in.’”

Morocco said the contract was put out to tender, which the Davey Resource Group won. He said the cost to inventory the 30,000 trees citywide was about $230,000.

“Once all of this data is collected, then it’s loaded in, and then from this comes a working sheet that when the forestry supervisor is now looking for a particular tree, the tree not only has a residential address, the tree has a GPS location and an IP address,” he said.

“(The forestry supervisor is) able to click on it, know that it’s a city tree, know exactly what kind of tree it is, understand the condition of the tree at the time the inspection was done.

“It will be a one-stop shop. You’ll be able to go to that one location and know from the day that tree was planted to the day it was removed and replaced, exactly every single work order that was done on the tree.”

Morocco said while most people may consider municipal assets to be roads, sewers and bridges, the city also sees its trees as an asset.

 He said in addition to gaining a better understanding of the various characteristics that exist within its tree inventory from a risk-management perspective, it’s also important to understand the condition the “canopy cover for your city.”

 “This summer was a prime example of the need for your urban forest, and the role that it can play in reducing all of that heat that is generated from the sun bouncing off of asphalt surfaces, concrete surfaces, metal surfaces,” said Morocco.

“The trees have the capacity to lower that temperature just by 15 to 20 degrees themselves (because of the shade they provide).”

He said Davey Resource Group members worked throughout the city for about eight weeks.

“We put them into the areas that had the highest degree of risk for us. Because of the numbers, we were able to capture a lot of the urban forest, so we’re going to have a very good idea of what this urban forest looks like.”

Steve Robinson, operations manager with the Davey Resource Group, said he had one team of eight members working every day in Niagara Falls until they wrapped up last week.

“Unfortunately, at this point we haven’t yet finished the analysis of the inventory data. But from what I’ve seen, the City of Niagara Falls has been really proactive in terms of their operations,” said Robinson.

“Nine times out of 10 you’re seeing fairly good canopy. They’re taking care of their trees, most definitely.”