CHICAGO REGION TREES INITIATIVE (CRTI) CANOPY COVER REPORT
CRTI's Municipal Tree Canopy Cover Reports assess tree canopy cover and plantable space by land use types and provide information additional information about trees and their impact on surface temperatures, species diversity, tree benefits to the community, invasive species, and oak ecosystem recovery. View Park Ridge's summary report below or visit CRTI's municipal summaries webpage. 


CHICAGO REGION TREES INITIATIVE MASTER PLAN
Since 2015, Forestry Staff has served on the CRTI's Tree Risk Assessment & Management and Trees & Green Infrastructure Work Groups. The Tree Risk group is tasked with identifying threats to Chicagoland's urban forest including weather trends, pests, disease, and invasive species, and developing mitigation strategies to address these issues. The Trees & Green Infrastructure Work Group addresses urban forest-related policy issues by creating recommendations for tree protection ordinances, development and zoning ordinances, and urban forest advocacy. These two groups, along with the Forest Composition and Tree Stewardship and Planting Work Groups, aided in the development of the CRTI's Master Plan 2050 and are tasked with identifying and implementing specific action items to ensure successful achievement of the Master Plan goals and outcomes.

 
In October 2016, after the completion of a multi-year tree inventory, Davey Resource Group, with assistance from Forestry staff, prepared an urban forest management plan for the over 20,000 trees located in the city parkways. View the plan by clicking here.

The plan is divided in to three sections:

• Section 1 (Tree Inventory Analysis) summarizes the data collected during the tree inventory and presents observations, results and trends. 
• Section 2 (Benefits of the Urban Forest) presents information about the economic, environmental, and social benefits that trees provide to the City.  This section also presents statistics from an i-Tree Streets benefits analysis for the City’s parkway trees.
• Section 3 (Tree Management Program) utilizes the inventory data to develop a prioritized maintenance schedule and projected budget for the implementation of the recommended tree maintenance over a five-year period.

In October 2016, Park Ridge’s tree canopy consisted of 20,866 individual trees appraised at $23,350,000. Additionally, the i-Tree Streets model estimated that the City’s parkway trees provide annual benefits of approximately $3,195,680.

PUBLIC TREE INVENTORY