Six students, along with Urban Horticulture Institute director Nina Bassuk and post-doctoral associate Fred Cowett, braved the heat Sunday to complete a street tree inventory for the Village of Jordan, 20 miles west of Syracuse, N.Y.
Bassuk and Cowett have been organizing these SWAT teams (Student Weekend Arborist Teams) of trained students since 2002 to give municipalities an affordable option for inventorying their street trees. “Inventories are the first step to help towns and villages across the state better manage their street tree resources,” says Bassuk.
Taken together, these smaller communities comprise a significant portion of New York State’s street trees. But they often lack the resources to gather the information they need to keep their street trees healthy.
Ithaca-based Central New York SWAT Teams have inventoried 36 communities. Hudson River Valley SWAT Teams based in Dutchess County and composed of Master Gardeners have inventoried 12 additional communities.
In addition to putting what they’ve learned in class to work in the real world, SWAT team students deliver:
- A complete inventory of all community trees in the public right-of-way of the municipality.
- The species distribution, condition, and maintenance needs of these trees.
- The location of existing planting spaces available for future plantings and list of recommended species.
- An analysis of the ecosystem benefits provided by community trees.
- A spreadsheet of inventory data local staff can keep the inventory up to date.
- A report and presentation of inventory data.
For more information, visit the Urban Horticulture Institute’s Community Forestry website.