Davey Resource Group

City of Greendale, Indiana: Tree Inventory, Management Plan, Maps, and Presentation

In August 2005, Davey Resource Group was contracted to conduct a comprehensive inventory of Greendale's 1,223 street and public space trees, stumps, and planting sites.

The goal was to provide complete tree data to allow City personnel and/or private tree service companies to manage the existing tree stock in a more efficient manner. The inventory included locating and mapping all trees using Global Positioning System (GPS) technology. An extensive tree management plan, based on the findings of the inventory, was then written by a DRG senior urban forester. The management plan provides a comprehensive five-year schedule of maintenance activities designed to mitigate potential high-risk trees and details a five-year complete tree care budget.

Per the client's request, the tree data were delivered in ArcView™ shapefile format along with an Excel™ spreadsheet of the entire tree database. A workbook detailing all required tree maintenance requirements and locations was also provided to the client for ease of use in field operations.

In addition to the tree inventory and management plan, the City also requested delivery of all the tree data printed on a wall map and on separate map sheet sets. Accurate maps facilitate the ease of data location in the field. The City also requested that the tree inventory's findings be presented to City staff and citizens at a designated meeting facility. Topics discussed during the presentation included the inventory's findings, removals, routine and training pruning programs, proper tree installation, and how to prevent the inventory data from becoming obsolete, among others.