April 29 will mark the 150th anniversary of Arbor Day, which was started in Nebraska and serves as a tree-planting holiday. This holiday represents a hope for the future by planting trees that will one day provide clean air, cooling shade, habitats for wildlife and healthier communities.
If you’re wanting to show your clients the value of the current trees they have or help them better understand the numerous benefits that trees have to offer, take advantage of the i-Tree Tools.
Initially released in 2006, this software was a cooperative initiative between The Davey Tree Expert Company, the USDA Forest Service, Arbor Day Foundation, Society of Municipal Arborists, International Society of Arboriculture and Casey Trees that analyzes urban forests to assess the benefits trees provide.
For instance, a red maple tree growing for over 20 years in Kent, Ohio can remove 3,100 pounds of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, intercept 27,000 gallons of rainfall, avoid 4,800 gallons of runoff and filter 15 pounds of ozone, nitrogen dioxide, and sulfur dioxide from the air.
These tools are free for everyone as the global mission of i-Tree is to quantify the benefits and value of trees and advocate for better tree and forest management.
The suite of tools includes:
- MyTree – helps users quickly assess the value and benefits of individual trees.
- i-Tree Design – a full-featured web tool that allows for expanded building interactions and forecasting for estimating the benefits of individual trees.
- i-Tree Eco – evaluates an existing tree inventory or new field data collection to derive individual tree benefit estimates.
- i-Tree Landscape – identifies priority planting and protection areas through U.S. tree canopy and Census data.
- i-Tree Canopy – estimates land cover and tree canopy using random point sampling on aerial imagery. Users can also compare two i-Tree Canopy projects to track from past to present the tree canopy change in a community.
- i-Tree Species – helps users select the most appropriate trees species based on their potential benefits and the user’s geographic area.
- i-Tree Planting – estimates the long-term benefits of a mass tree-planting project.
With these tools readily available you can back up your case for trees, specific species and the management or maintenance of certain trees.
i-Tree continues to grow each year with new and refined tools, and new scientific research. The tools are accessible free of charge with more than 300,000 people, representing more than 100 countries.
