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Residents are helping catalog Charlotte's shrinking tree canopy

Natasha Warren, center, leads a group of volunteers examining and cataloging a tree in Charlotte's Gibbon Woods neighborhood on Saturday, May 20, 2023.
Nick de la Canal
/
WFAE
Natasha Warren, center, leads a group of volunteers examining and cataloging a tree in Charlotte's Gibbon Woods neighborhood on Saturday, May 20, 2023.

A group of volunteers walked slowly through the Gibbon Woods neighborhood on Saturday, examining trees along the way.

The group was led by Natasha Warren, from Charlotte's tree management team. She pointed out some good things she saw, such as a few bird's nests.

"We like that. That's good stuff," she said.

She also pointed out some bad things, such as a tree with a split trunk, dead branches and some tree scales.

"Do you notice up at the top? That's called a broken leader," she said, as the volunteers examined the bent limbs.

With Warren's guidance, the volunteers used iPads to enter each tree and some notes on a virtual map called TreePlotter.

Warren said the city is trying to collect more data about its tree canopy, which has been shrinking, and doing this was one way residents can help.

Can this city of trees rebuild its disappearing tree canopy? There is a master plan for doing so and we look at how realistic it is, and at where we are on the road to success in that effort.

"We know that most of the trees in Charlotte's urban forest are on private property, so (residents) recording what they have in those spaces helps us know more about what our urban forest consists of, and how we need to manage it," she said.

The city also wants a comprehensive inventory of publicly-owned trees, too, so it knows how to allocate resources and focus maintenance and tree planting initiatives.

City staff says anyone can use the TreePlotter website to catalog trees in their neighborhoods and backyards. So far, more than 185,000 trees have been entered.

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Nick de la Canal is an on air host and reporter covering breaking news, arts and culture, and general assignment stories. His work frequently appears on air and online. Periodically, he tweets: @nickdelacanal