State of Chicagos Street Trees Joseph McCarthy, Senior City Forester - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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State of Chicagos Street Trees Joseph McCarthy, Senior City Forester - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

May 30, 2023 150 likes •480 views

Chicago Urban Forest Management: State of Chicagos Street Trees Joseph McCarthy, Senior City Forester Bureau of Forestry November 14, 2016 Forest Health Management Assessment of Urban Forest Parkway Trees Assess Progress -------

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Chicago Urban Forest Management: State of Chicago’s Street Trees

Joseph McCarthy, Senior City Forester Bureau of Forestry November 14, 2016

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Forest Health Management Assessment of Urban Forest Parkway Trees

 Assess Progress -------

Indicators

 Inventory

 Species Diversity, Size Distribution, Stocking Level

 Canopy Cover

 Long Range Planning to set Goals:

 Planting Numbers  Adjust Species Mix-----Set Diversity Guidelines  Prohibit/Reduce Plantings of certain trees  Potential Impacts on Trimming and Removals

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19% Canopy Cover 3.5 million Trees 566,000 Street Trees 4,000 miles of streets 140,000 acres 900 - ¼ mile grids Each Grid has 32, 5 Acre Blocks

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1 City Block 1 sample plot in Survey

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Forest Health Management Indicator # 1: How Many?

 1990 100% Tree Census 440,000  1994 Random Sample*

450,000

 2003 100% Tree Census

528,000

 2003 Random Sample*

538,000

 2013 Random Sample*

586,811

* Jaensen, R., N. Bassuk et al. 1992. J. Arboriculture 18:171-183

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Forest Health Management Indicator # 2: Canopy Cover

Citywide Roadway

 1994

11%*

 2003

14-16%**

 2008

17%***

 2010

19%**** 29% (street trees)

 2020

20% Goal

 American Forests: 40% Goal

* McPherson, Nowak Study using 213 sample plots /Leaf Area Index ** 2003 Iconos Satellite Image, City staff vs. Grad student, Arizona State looking closer at this ***UFORE UTC 2008 by RFP Mapping, LLC **** Hi Res Lidar 2010, CRTI

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2003 Data Analysis

 Environmental baseline

data-collection & analysis:

 Tree Canopy Cover

Surface Temperatures

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Forest Health Management Tree Planting

Target: Heat Island Low Canopy Cover

1 2 3 4 7 6 5

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Plant 2,000 to 5,000 annually

EAB Treatment years - lower number

Remove 10,000-20,000

  • limited by resources
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Forest Health Management Indicator # 3: Stocking Level

 1994 Parkway Stocking Level 64%  2003 Parkway Stocking Level 75%  2013 Parkway Stocking Level 72%*

* preliminary

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Residential Street

90% of Street Trees are located on residential streets

  • Greatest Opportunity to increase Diversity, Canopy Cover Etc.
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Typical Streetscape Development

  • - Increase Tree Pit size from 5’ x 5’ to 5’ x10’
  • - Increase center opening from 16” to 24”
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Forest Health Management Indicator # 4: Species Diversity

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Top Parkway Species 1994

Norway maple 126,000 28% Silver maple 76,000 17% Honeylocust 63,000 14% Green ash 60,000 14% American elm 13,470 3% Sugar maple 8,700 2% Basswood 7,900 2%

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Tree Species Diversity Goals

Informed by Random Sample Survey Info

 No Species > 15% of total population  Systematic Diversity

 Alternating Groupings (4-6) of Trees

 No tree >25% of block segment  ISA: 10% Family (Fagacae) , 5% Species (Red oak)

 Santamore: 30% Family, 20% Genus, 10% Species

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Top Parkway Species 2003

Norway maple 114,876 22% -6% Silver maple 88,889 17% Honeylocust 80,970 15% +1% Green ash 76,157 14% White ash 14,848 3% +2% Basswood 10,187 2% Littleleaf linden 10,498 2% +2%

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Norway maple 104,734 18%

  • 4%

Green ash 87,179 15% +1% Honeylocust 85,122 14%

  • 1%

Silver maple 72,092 12%

  • 5%

Hybrid elm 18,049 3% +2% Littleleaf linden 15,528 3% +1% White ash 14,982 3%

Top Parkway Species 2013

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Forest Health Management Indicator # 5: Size Distribution

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Citywide Size Distribution 1994-2013

20000 40000 60000 80000 100000 120000 140000 160000 1-3 4-6 7-12 13-18 19-24 25-30 31+

Citywide Size Distribution 1994, 2003, 2013

2013 2003 1994

Age Gap Created by Dutch Elm Disease Large Scale Planting in 60’s and 70’s Limited in 80’s

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2013 vs “Ideal” Size Distribution

50000 100000 150000 200000 250000 0 - 8 9 - 16 17 - 24 25 +

2013 Ideal Lost ground

Ideal: 40% 30% 20% 10%

Scott Maco and Greg McPherson Assessing Canopy Cover over Streets and Sidewalks in Street Tree Populations. Journal of Arboriculture 28: 270-276 2002

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EAB Management Program

 Manage Loss of Ash (Non-catastrophic)

 Project based Ash reduction- Capital Projects

 Small replaceable ash targeted

 Late to game Treatment

 Treating imperfect trees

 At what point is Ash tree Condemned

 Imperfect implementation

 Prolong benefits of Ash Tree Canopy

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Ash Tree Population

Year Pop. Removed

%Total Removals

 2011

86501 872 13%

 2012

85258 1243 18%

 2013

82234 3024 31%

 2014

75232 7007 46%

 2015

65,606 9926 55%

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2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 Ash 928 1018 768 872 1243 3024 7002 9626 Total 9347 7168 6304 6630 6485 9730 15286 17428 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000 14000 16000 18000 20000

Tree Removal

Street Trees

Ash Total

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Street Tree Population Trend

490000 500000 510000 520000 530000 540000 550000 560000 570000 580000 590000 600000

Street Tree Population

sample adjustment at +4755/year

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Emerald Ash Borer Management Tree-Age Injections (2008 discovery)

Year Qty

 2011

1,512 (hot spots only)

 2012

1,300

 2013

37,829 (2 year cycle)

 2014

23,658

 2015

  • ff year

 2016

~25,000

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Storm Water Benefits 2003

 Total Street Trees:

540,000

 Ash Tree Population

89,000 16% of total

 Storm Water Interception: 1.22 Billion Gal/year

 SWI

 Ash Tree SWI:

174 Million Gal/year

14% of Total Street Tree SWI

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Storm Water Benefits 2013

 Total Street Trees:

586,811

 Ash Tree Population

82,000 14% of total

 Storm Water Interception: 1.5 Billion Gal/year

 SWI

 Ash Tree SWI:

150 – 174 million Gallons* * Guestimate Calculation In Progress

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Spend to: Preserve Canopy or Plant More Trees

 Existing Ash

 SWI=

150 – 174 million Gallons

 Remove Remaining Ash  Plant 82,000 new trees

 SWI

13 million Gallons 8.5%

 91.5% capacity lost

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The Good News

 >146,000 increase in Street Trees  ~72% Stocking, 8% Gain over 19 yrs  ~19% Canopy cover, 8% Gain over 19 yrs  25”+ Size Class has almost doubled in

last 10yrs

 Co-operative Effort Public/Private

Creating New Spaces, Preserving Spaces, Planting Existing Spaces

Landscape Ordinance Contributed

~90,000+ Street Trees

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Continuing Goals

 Strive to Increase Planting to reach Sustainablility

 Maximize Planting in non-treatment years

 Continue Tree Preservation Efforts

 Canopy Preservation----Large Tree Benefit

 Continue Promotion of Larger Planting Spaces

 More Soil Volume  CREATE RIGHT SPACE FOR RIGHT TREE

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The Struggle

 Street Tree Population in Decline  ~ 2 year Removal Backlog

 Even with Treatments, Removals are a challenge

 Ideal Size Distribution falling behind

 Reduced tree planting

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Partners

 Chicago Region Trees Initiative (CRTI)

 Comprised of Municipalities, Non-Profits,

Community Groups, Nursery Growers, Trade Groups (ISA,IAA), Openlands, Morton Arboretum and Chicago Botanic Garden.

 Openlands

 Treekeepers - Volunteer Tree Care  TreePlanters Grant - Volunteer Tree Planting  Green Infrastructure Mapping