Forest City -- once and future (Cleveland, Cincinnati: how much, vs., budget)

[WRnative]

I was surprised to read that Cleveland's tree canopy has fallen to only 19 percent, one-half of Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, and lower than in New York City!

You don't have to hug trees to save them, you just have to have a plan: Michael K. McIntyre | cleveland.com

Obviously, this demonstrates a lack of a budget priority, and perhaps a lack of emphasis on trees in the planning commission.

<<
Cleveland's tree canopy falls behind those of Detroit (23 percent), New York (24 percent), Cincinnati (38 percent), and Pittsburgh (42 percent).


"If we continue to lose our urban forest at the current rate, we will have 14 percent tree coverage by 2040," McGowan said.


"We're losing 90 acres of urban forest every year in Cleveland," Colby Sattler, a project manager in urban forestry at the Western Reserve Land Conservancy, told the commission. "To stem that tide, we need to plant 35,000 trees a year."


Quantifying the tree canopy

The plan shows that if the city wants to increase its tree coverage to 40 percent by 2040, it would have to plant more than 691,000 trees.>>

Planning commission approves a Tree Plan aimed at making Cleveland 'The Forest City' once again | cleveland.com

This perhaps also reflects a lack of emphasis on parks within the city proper, with the great metropark reservations located in the suburbs. Cincinnati, in particular, is noted for its great park system in the city proper.

I wonder how much emphasis is being placed on new parks within Cleveland now that property values in much of Cleveland are depressed and park land more economically purchased.

[j_ws]

There are some pushes to restore tree canopies in Edgewater and Cudell that I am hopeful will continue to expand. W 103 south of Madison just received 30-some new trees.

Currently parts of the west side are losing some trees as Dominion is replacing all of the gas lines and as they're ripping out sidewalks, improperly large trees with expansive root systems are also being removed and (supposedly) replaced.

I'm hoping that West Boulevard makes it through intact.

[bjimmy24]

Strange, when I'm in town, I always marvel at how many more trees are seemingly in Cleveland. Could just be happenstance of where I tend to spend time, but also when I fly over CLE into Hopkins, it looks way more green than when I fly into Boston.

[Min-Chi-Cbus]

Originally Posted by bjimmy24

Strange, when I'm in town, I always marvel at how many more trees are seemingly in Cleveland. Could just be happenstance of where I tend to spend time, but also when I fly over CLE into Hopkins, it looks way more green than when I fly into Boston.

Is it the distinction of the CITY of Cleveland vs. the metro area? The metro is lush, I feel, while the city is not, really.

[j_ws]

I wonder where if the distinction is drawn between city trees on tree lawns and private trees on front yards. Furthermore, I wonder if they are counting ones back yards, as I assume that survey would either be old or nonexistent.

Here's a cool interactive map that shows the lack of trees in Cudell and Buckeye-Shaker: https://gis.davey.com/CommunityReleaf/Cleveland/Results