Arboriculture & Urban Forestry 47(1): January 2021 Arboriculture & Urban Forestry 2021. 47(1):3–24 https://doi.org/10.48044/jauf.2021.002 URBAN FORESTRY ARBORICULTURE Scientific Journal of the International Society of Arboriculture & Tracking Changes to Urban Trees over 100 Years in Ithaca, NY, USA By F.D. Cowett, N.L. Bassuk, J. Grace, and K. Vorstadt Abstract. Municipally managed urban trees provide environmental, social, and economic benefits. Continued provision of these benefits depends on the health and sustainability of these trees, which depends in turn on tree managers having the type of information usually found in a tree inventory. The city of Ithaca, New York, USA possesses 7 inventories of its street and park trees dating back to 1902. This paper uses the data contained in these inventories to assess the health and sustainability of the city’s street and park tree populations. Attention is given to the structure of these populations with emphasis placed on species and genera diversity and DBH size class distributions. Prior to 1987, the city’s municipal tree population was dominated by a few species, such as Norway maple (Acer platanoides), and genera such as maples (Acer) and elms (Ulmus), and the DBH size class distribution was skewed unsustainably towards older trees. From 1987 onwards, new plantings have sig- nificantly increased species and genera diversity, and the DBH size class distribution suggests sufficient younger trees to account for tree mor- tality and removals. These changes did not occur quickly due to the persistent legacy effect of past planting preferences and practices, but required a consistent effort by municipal tree managers over many years. As a result, based on an analysis of the most recent tree inventory con- ducted in 2019, the city’s street and park trees and the benefits they provide look to be on a more sustainable footing, although challenges still remain. Keywords. Legacy Effect; Norway Maple; Species Diversity; Tree Inventory; Urban Tree Management. 3 INTRODUCTION Urban trees provide environmental, social, and eco- nomic benefits (Vogt 2020). These benefits include, but are not limited to, environmental benefits such as air quality improvement (Irga et al. 2015) and carbon stor- age and sequestration (Tang et al. 2016); social bene- fits such as better cardiovascular health (Karden et al. 2015) and greater traffic safety (Harvey and Aultman- Hall 2019); and economic benefits such as reduced energy costs (Nowak et al. 2017) and higher property values (Donovan et al. 2019). Municipally managed trees, such as street and park trees, often comprise a minority of urban trees and the benefits they provide (Dwyer et al. 2000). They have, however, been a longstanding focus of urban forestry due at least in part to their high visibility and because, unlike trees on private property, these are the trees over which urban foresters most often have direct control (Clark et al. 1997; Nowak and O’Connor 2001). Provision of the benefits provided by street and park trees has become a focus of municipal tree management in the United States (Silvera Seamans 2013; Young 2013). Continued provision of these benefits depends on the health and sustainability of street and park tree popu- lations, which depend in turn on municipal tree man- agers having accurate information for tree care and maintenance (Cumming et al. 2008). The tree inventory, in which data are collected for individual trees in a municipal tree population, has long been considered an essential urban tree manage- ment tool (Tate 1985). It facilitates an understanding of tree population structure, such as tree density, spe- cies composition and diversity, and age distribution, which is essential for creating a plan to sustainably manage urban trees (Nowak et al. 2008). An inven- tory provides a snapshot in time and can quickly become outdated, since urban tree populations are dynamic and constantly change due to natural and anthropogenic factors (Roman et al. 2013; Nowak et al. 2016). Understanding such change enables municipal ©2021 International Society of Arboriculture
January 2021
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