Read the official press release here: City of Northampton Launches its First Professional Shade Tree Inventory
Following a $30,000 grant award from the MA Department of Conservation and Recreation, Northampton has hired Davey Resource Group to conduct a first-time complete inventory of its public shade trees, a critical baseline for developing a comprehensive urban forestry plan.
Five Certified Arborists from Davey Resource Group–donning high-visibility vests and hard hats–will walk city streets, parks and cemeteries over the next two months gathering important data on each of the city’s approximate 11,000 public shade trees such as location, species, size, and signs of disease or infestation. In addition, Davey Resource Group will identify 2000 planting locations for new public shade trees.
“This inventory should be extremely illuminating,” said Northampton’s Tree Warden Richard Parasiliti. “There’s a lot we don’t know about the composition, distribution and health of our current tree canopy. This inventory will provide answers. Davey Resource Group will also save us enormous time and effort by identifying thousands of new planting sites.”
Mayor David Narkewicz added, “I’m very excited to see this inventory underway. Good policy and funding decisions about managing and growing our tree canopy must be rooted in data. This inventory will give us complete and professionally-reliable data”.
After collecting the data, Davey Resource Group will analyze results and release the raw data, a summary analysis, and a recommendation report to the City. Parasiliti, in collaboration with the Northampton Public Shade Tree Commission, will use Davey Resource Group’s report to develop the City’s first urban forestry plan. Parasiliti will maintain and update the inventory using the Davey Resource Group’s, Tree Keeper Urban Forestry Management Software. The data can also be layered onto the City’s current GIS database.