Jefferson City takes stock of tree inventory

Trees along Capitol Avenue bow their branches Wednesday to accommodate the sidewalk in Jefferson City. Trees were recently inventoried around Jefferson City.
Trees along Capitol Avenue bow their branches Wednesday to accommodate the sidewalk in Jefferson City. Trees were recently inventoried around Jefferson City.

Staff in the Jefferson City Parks, Recreation and Forestry Department recently completed a citywide tree inventory.

JC Parks forestry staff partnered with Davey Resource Group to complete the inventory. The project was funded by the Tree Resource Improvement and Maintenance grant program, provided by the Missouri Department of Conservation and Missouri Community Forest Council.

JC Parks received a $23,822.96 grant to complete the project.

All trees, stumps and vacant planting sites along specified city right-of-ways were inventoried, totaling 3,983 sites - 2,251 tress, 121 stumps and 1,611 vacant planting sites, according to a news release from JC Parks.

The inventoried area spanned generally from Adams Street to Riverside Drive and from the Missouri River to East Miller Street. The department had previously inventoried the city's parks and other areas.

Items inventoried included species composition, general condition, maintenance recommendations and risk ratings.

City Forester Ray Wallace said Jefferson City has a pretty diverse range of tree species compared to other cities.

"Most places you go, you'll find they have 50 percent of oak trees or 50 percent of ash trees," Wallace said. "I think the highest I saw was maybe 25 percent of one type of tree. Jeff City is pretty diversified as a forest. It's not just all one species."

Wallace said they found around 80 species of trees while doing the inventory.

Having a diverse selection of trees is good for the city because it prevents a species-specific disease from affecting large amounts of trees.

Now that inventory is complete, one of the first steps is to address the high-risk trees.

"Some of the inventoried areas have the oldest trees in the city," Wallace said. "Another area covered was damaged by the tornado last year."

The inventory also gives the department a list of stumps in the city's rights-of-way that need to be removed and designates potential planting locations.

"This inventory provides much needed information to manage our tree system," Wallace said. "Without this plan, it would be extremely difficult to efficiently maintain the thousands of trees in Jefferson City."

Having a tree inventory also assists JC Parks in developing a maintenance system to determine budget, staff and equipment needs. Proper maintenance provides economic, environmental and social value to the community.

The grant funds can also be used for education and tree removal.

Several of the department's certified arborists went to the International Society of Arboriculture conference using some of the grant funds.

The city also used some funds to remove 12 ash trees that were near the end of their lives on Monroe Street.