SavATree Completes Los Angeles County Tree Canopy Assessment

BEDFORD HILLS, N.Y., May 9, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- SavATree's Consulting Group has recently completed an analysis of the tree canopy and green infrastructure of Los Angeles County. The goal of this project has been to give the county actionable intelligence on the state of their tree canopy that can be used to identify areas for improvement and preservation.

Trees have been shown to improve water quality, reduce storm water runoff, decrease energy use in buildings, remove air pollution, enhance quality of life, and increase property values. Improving canopy cover gives cities a chance to improve their climate resilience while enhancing community sentiment and public health.

SavATree, along with their collaborators TreePeople, Dr. Dexter Locke, The University of Vermont Spatial Analysis Lab, and The Loyola Marymount Center for Urban Resilience, used high-resolution remote sensing in combination with demographic and urban heat data to break down the study area for review.

Among the key findings:

• 25% of the city's and 18% of the county's land is covered by tree canopy.
• Roughly 1/5 (18%) of the city's canopy grows in 1/10 (8%) of the total land area, occupied by just 1% of the population.
• There has been a significant decline in tree canopy on residential land parcels since 2000.
• For the City of LA, tree canopy is concentrated on residential parcels of land. Residential land also represents the largest area for improvement.

"For over 40 years, TreePeople has been a leader in protecting and enhancing LA's tree canopy," said Michael Galvin, Director of SavATree's Consulting Group. "They continue that leadership with this study. They are great partners and we could not be more pleased that they chose SavATree Consulting Group to help them plan for a greener and more sustainable Los Angeles."

You can find the full report at https://www.treepeople.org/latreecanopydata

The project team would like to thank the USDA Forest Service and CAL FIRE for providing funding for the project. The findings and recommendations are those of the project team and not the funding agencies.

About SavATree

SavATree's Consulting Group offers tree inventory services, landscape evaluation, tree risk assessment, development of bid specifications, preservation during construction, tree appraisal, and expert witness. All SavATree branches offer consulting services, as well as property stewardship programs that feature environmentally sensible services like organic and hybrid plant health care, general tree care, and lawn care. Services include tree and shrub pruning, insect and disease management, deer deterrence, and lawn care, as well as tree and shrub nutrient/fertilization programs. Learn more at http://www.savatree.com.

SOURCE SavATree