Borough Shade Tree Inventory

TreeVitalize
TreeVitalize

The Borough of West Reading was awarded a TreeVitalize Grant, which was established as a public-private partnership by the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR). This grant was aimed towards helping to build a capacity within communities to plan for, plant, and care for trees, and to offer educational trainings to help citizens understand the diverse benefits of trees and the importance of properly planting and maintaining them.

Volunteers from the Pennsylvania Outdoor Corps along with leaders from DCNR canvassed the Borough to obtain an inventory of Borough Shade Trees.

Tree Inventory

Tree Inventory 2 Tree Inventory 2

TreePennsylvania - PA's Urban and Community Forestry Council - administers the statewide TreeVitalize grants. Funding focuses on assisting communities in establishing and building programs that plant, maintain and sustainably manage public shade trees.

  • TreeVitalize offers technical assistance to communities interested in:
  • Conducting street tree inventories
  • Young tree monitoring
  • General urban forest management activities

DCNR's Bureau of Forestry received a U.S. Forest Service grant to provide communities with a free tree mapping tool to help better manage and grow the urban forest. Pennsylvania Community Tree Map offers shade tree commissions and other volunteers, non-profits, and urban tree managers a means of conducting tree inventories, storing the data, and tracking tree maintenance and stewardship activities.

It can also house urban tree canopy analysis data. The tool can communicate the economic benefits the tree canopy within a municipality currently provides, and can help community tree managers make more informed land planning decisions. You can subscribe to the map and create an account at OpenTreeMap.