ABSTRACT
In the last decade, efforts are beginning to converge to monitor the survival, growth, and longevity of planted urban trees. In a comprehensive review of published single-tree inventory methodologies used in urban forestry (including aerial and satellite methods as well as traditional ground survey inventory methods), Nielsen et al. (2014) found that traditional “field survey,” or on-the-ground, inventory methods constituted the vast majority of single-tree inventory studies (46 of 57 articles reviewed). Several recent large-scale, single-city tree-monitoring efforts have used field survey methods to measure the survival rates of urban trees. In the summer of 2006, the Parks and Recreation Department of New York City conducted a large-scale young street tree mortality study to examine the many factors in the city influencing the survival of over 14,000 newly
planted street trees (NYC Parks 2014). The site assessment tools used in this study included factors measuring the surrounding social and physical environment of each tree (NYC Parks et al. 2010). Other recent regional monitoring efforts include Sacramento, California, where Roman monitored the survival rates over 5 years of over 400 trees that were handed out as part of a utility company tree distribution program (Roman 2013); Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where, most recently, Koeser et al. (2013) use 25 years of monitoring data for a cohort of nearly 800 trees to determine the impacts of a variety of factors on tree survival rates; and New Haven, Connecticut, where Jack-Scott et al. (2013) evaluate the impact of community and other characteristics on survival rates for almost 1,400 trees planted between 1995 and 2007. To our knowledge, large-scale, multi-city planted tree monitoring studies do not seem to exist.
