Tree Inventory Helps Los Angeles Manage Large Scale Urban Forest

City Of Los Angeles, CA

In less than 18 months, DRG completed a comprehensive tree inventory for the City of Los Angeles—one of the nation’s largest urban park systems.

Project Narrative:

As one of the largest urban park systems in the country, Los Angeles’ Department of Recreation and Parks provides a unique variety of recreational opportunities for the community. To better understand the overall condition and equitable distribution of their urban forest resources, LA Parks contracted Davey Resource Group to conduct a comprehensive tree inventory. Our team of ISA Certified Arborists and Inventory Technicians kicked off the project in October of 2019. Inventory sites included traditional parks, golf courses, athletic facilities, and numerous open space recreational parks. Additionally, more complex evaluations of some of the city’s most ecologically diverse recreation areas (Elysian Park and Griffith Park) were performed, with the additional drone and resource analyses conducted at these sites.

Large Amounts Of Data For Maximum Benefits

The tree inventory gathered data on more than 150,000 sites spread over 16,000 acres within 551 parks. Data collection fields included species, size, condition, and maintenance needs of inventoried trees as well as identifying vacant planting sites. As LA Parks uses Davey’s TreeKeeper management software, the inventory data was seamlessly incorporated into their existing database and had a direct and immediate impact on their management, workflow, and daily operations.

Completed in less than 18 months and under budget, this tree inventory (one of the largest park tree inventories ever) provides the City of Los Angeles with powerful data and guidance for the management of their urban forest, which provides over $32 million in annual benefits.

DRG tackled many challenges in the course of this project, including complications associated with COVID-19, social unrest, record heat, and low air quality due to wildfires, as well as working across very large geographic areas. We were also able to add additional value by including other services such as drone analyses, Invasive Shot Hole Borer (ISHB) monitoring, tree risk assessments, and heritage/historic tree evaluations.

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