Tree Inventory and Risk Assessment

[Olesenofalaska]

I am working for a friend who has the landscaping maintenance contract on a military base. The trees had never been cared for before 5 years ago and vary in age from 70 years to just planted. The only constant is that they are placed badly, tall growing spruce between units etc... We told the management company that they have problem trees that need removed and they didn't want to pay a high cost for removal or for the planting of replacement trees. A codominant top out of a spruce hit a house and now they want assessments done on all trees.
My approach was to print maps of the neighborhoods and map out all trees and identify which ones should be assessed individually later. It is time consuming in the newer neighborhoods with lots of recently planted trees and the oldest areas which were just allowed to grow in and then get mowed around.
I plan on creating a grid work or attribute each area to a particular building number to be able to identify trees to be looked at again.
Anybody ever do anything like this? I am sure there are better ways but none of the other arborists I know have ever tackled this large of an area with this density of trees.
I did just go through the Tree Risk Assessment Qualification but I don't know if this is consulting.
Appreciate the input.
Alex

 

[jefflovstrom]

The trees had never been cared for before 5 years ago and vary in age from 70 years to just planted. We told the management company that they have problem trees that need removed and they didn't want to pay a high cost for removal or for the planting of replacement trees. A codominant top out of a spruce hit a house and now they want assessments done on all trees.
My approach was to print maps of the neighborhoods and map out all trees and identify which ones should be assessed individually later. It is time consuming in the newer neighborhoods with lots of recently planted trees and the oldest areas which were just allowed to grow in and then get mowed around.
I plan on creating a grid work or attribute each area to a particular building number to be able to identify trees to be looked at again.
Anybody ever do anything like this? I am sure there are better ways but none of the other arborists I know have ever tackled this large of an area with this density of trees.
I did just go through the Tree Risk Assessment Qualification but I don't know if this is consulting.
Appreciate the input.
Alex

You got your work cut out for you. I know. How large is the area?
Jeff

 

[BC WetCoast]

I've done a couple of large inventory/assessment projects, one involved over 2500 trees.

The best way to do it depends a lot on the budget you've been allocated.

The gold plated approach would be to GPS each tree and record all the attributes for each tree while you are there (ie species, size, defects, quality, work required, pictures). Then take the GPS data, put it in a GIS system which would then allow you to map it all out. The power is later on being able to database queries on the data and present them in a spatial format (eg all spruce trees requiring removal, all decid trees less than 10 yrs old, etc)

Another approach would be to hand map the trees on paper and keep a database of tree attributes. You could use google earth to get you a map of tree locations.

The cheapest way would be to just do a spreadsheet of tree data with a description of location (ie west property line 1234 Airplane St).

Whichever way you decide to go, it is going to be time consuming and labour intensive. You may want to make this into a multi year project or else hire a large crew of data gatherers.

 

[jefflovstrom]

Start with the priorities,,
Jeff

 

[Olesenofalaska]

The layout is around 200-300 acres which house around 1000 households. Most of these buildings are fourplex's with duplex's and six plexes as well.
My first thought was to map everything to get a scope of work. I had never thought of using Google Earth but that can really help now that I look at it. I will try to print satellite images off Google earth to overlay onto the basic maps that I have. I have never used GIS or any sort of sophisticated mapping programs and that is definitely a weakness. I can use Excel on a basic level and that is what I will probably transfer everything into. I still think that what I am doing right now is valuable in that I am seeing all of the trees and getting a quick impression of every one of them. I understand that I will have to retrace a lot of these steps when I do the tree risk assessments but I can head straight to the trees that need that level of assessment, skipping all of the young and defect-free trees.
I don't know if this type of work is something I will do much of in my career but it certainly does push me and my abilities in ways I have never done before.
Thanks for the help.

 

[ATH]

You should really do a "Level 1" Tree Risk Assessment the first time you are visiting the trees...

 

[Olesenofalaska]

I have the book here somewhere, what is involved in a level 1?

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

Have CE print off some base maps. What base? I might be able to help.

 

[Olesenofalaska]

I have good neighborhood maps of Fort Wainwright. I want to overlay satellite pictures now to double check tree locations. In some places there are a lot of trees in tight quarters and I'm not sure how accurate I am at mapping those. My boss said that he does have access to a GIS system, he just doesn't know how to use it. I can try to look at that.

 

[ATH]

I have the book here somewhere, what is involved in a level 1?

http://www.isa-arbor.com/myaccount/myeducation/resources/2012-april-ceuarb.pdf Limited visual assessment.

 

[anlrolfe]

Corps of Engineers may be able to add a special layer onto their AutoCad prints just for that purpose.

+1 Hand-held GPS could be very helpful

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