2015 Conference

Poster Presentation

The Urban trees provide environmental, psychological, and economic benefits ranging from improved air and water quality to savings from decreased heating and cooling costs to aesthetically pleasing neighborhoods and increased resale values. Since August 2006, communities, non-profit organizations, volunteers and students have been engaged in quantifying the structure of community trees and the environmental services that trees provide by using i-Tree, a free suite of software utilities developed by the USDA Forest Service and numerous cooperators. This presentation will demonstrate the data collection of urban forest trees on Virginia State University’s (VSU) campus, by using i-Tree database system. Undergraduate students in agriculture, biology, and other departments worked as a team, in developing VSU’s inventory of the trees on the campus and its surrounding areas.  Data was collected on the location, species, height, trunk diameter, crown diameter, and other parameters of trees by using low-tech instruments such as measuring tape, diameter tape, calipers, compass, and telescoping measuring rod; as well as high-tech instruments such as a laser rangefinder hypsometer and global positioning system (GPS). These data were input into the i-Tree software. The GPS waypoints were uploaded in ArcMap. The results of this study showed that there are many trees on VSU campus that cost more to maintain and upkeep than benefits that they provide. On the other hand, there are locations on campus where trees could be added to increase benefits. The results of this study will help in the formation of the tree inventory and management database for an urban community such a university campus. This in turn, will help in decision making by the personnel in the Campus Facilities for the tree care and long-term planning for new building.  This research was sponsored by the NIFA Grants, “Urban Forestry Management” (2012-38821-20153) and “Climate Change Studies” (2011-38821-30892).