595 00:00:04,730 --> 00:00:05,570 My name is Joanne 596 00:00:05,570 --> 00:00:08,000 and I am the technical assistance coordinator, 597 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:08,940 which means I do a lot of the, 598 00:00:08,940 --> 00:00:10,130 keeps on the ground stuff 599 00:00:10,130 --> 00:00:12,350 with communities for the state's urban 600 00:00:12,350 --> 00:00:14,720 and community forestry program. 601 00:00:14,720 --> 00:00:15,770 So the tool that I'm talking 602 00:00:15,770 --> 00:00:17,495 to you about today is not super 603 00:00:17,495 --> 00:00:20,310 complicated and it really is 604 00:00:21,871 --> 00:00:24,290 as reflecting on what folks were talking 605 00:00:24,290 --> 00:00:25,460 about in the panel this morning, 606 00:00:25,460 --> 00:00:27,270 just that other side of the coin 607 00:00:27,270 --> 00:00:28,430 of what's the 608 00:00:28,430 --> 00:00:29,840 high tech modeling and then what's 609 00:00:29,840 --> 00:00:31,070 the thing that people can 610 00:00:31,070 --> 00:00:33,320 use on the ground and what challenges 611 00:00:33,320 --> 00:00:34,760 does that have when you migrate 612 00:00:34,760 --> 00:00:38,333 from even just pen and paper to a digital platform. 613 00:00:39,200 --> 00:00:41,150 So just a little bit of background 614 00:00:41,150 --> 00:00:41,983 for folks who are like, 615 00:00:41,983 --> 00:00:43,130 I'm in a forestry conference, 616 00:00:43,130 --> 00:00:45,350 what is this urban forestry thing? 617 00:00:45,350 --> 00:00:47,849 So trees in urban areas are still 618 00:00:47,849 --> 00:00:50,030 all part of the same forest. 619 00:00:50,030 --> 00:00:52,280 And what is urban? 620 00:00:52,280 --> 00:00:54,783 That can be a scary word for some of our mantras, 621 00:00:54,783 --> 00:00:56,390 but I know many of you live 622 00:00:56,390 --> 00:00:58,940 in Arlington or urban areas 623 00:00:58,940 --> 00:01:01,520 and 3% of all US land area 624 00:01:01,520 --> 00:01:04,130 is considered urban by some definitions, 625 00:01:04,130 --> 00:01:05,890 but 80% and growing 626 00:01:05,890 --> 00:01:07,850 of the population lives in urban areas. 627 00:01:07,850 --> 00:01:09,170 So if we're talking about the trees 628 00:01:09,170 --> 00:01:11,720 that people actually see from day to day, 629 00:01:11,720 --> 00:01:13,850 it's likely outside their window 630 00:01:13,850 --> 00:01:15,380 or along their street or maybe 631 00:01:15,380 --> 00:01:16,853 on their drive or bus ride. 632 00:01:18,680 --> 00:01:23,680 Vermont's urban forest, we think over 243,000 people. 633 00:01:23,990 --> 00:01:27,320 So just under half of Vermonter's live within an area 634 00:01:27,320 --> 00:01:28,820 described as urban. 635 00:01:28,820 --> 00:01:30,740 So high population density, 636 00:01:30,740 --> 00:01:32,660 high impervious surface, 637 00:01:32,660 --> 00:01:35,000 low-ish tree canopy cover compared 638 00:01:35,000 --> 00:01:36,560 to the green mountains. 639 00:01:36,560 --> 00:01:39,470 And this number of course is growing as well. 640 00:01:39,470 --> 00:01:40,303 Particularly if you look 641 00:01:40,303 --> 00:01:42,230 at 2020 census data up to what, 642 00:01:42,230 --> 00:01:43,820 where we know people live today, 643 00:01:43,820 --> 00:01:46,070 only two or three years later, 644 00:01:46,070 --> 00:01:47,150 more and more folks are coming 645 00:01:47,150 --> 00:01:48,740 to urban areas or at least 646 00:01:48,740 --> 00:01:51,980 suburban areas in Vermont. 647 00:01:51,980 --> 00:01:53,360 So we think there's approximately 648 00:01:53,360 --> 00:01:55,160 12 million give or take a 649 00:01:55,160 --> 00:01:58,310 million trees in Vermont urban areas. 650 00:01:58,310 --> 00:02:00,200 So what does urban forestry look like? 651 00:02:00,200 --> 00:02:01,463 This is our sort, 652 00:02:02,347 --> 00:02:06,440 I mean my spray (indistinct) photo of urban forestry 653 00:02:06,440 --> 00:02:10,280 and like forest are part of our lived areas. 654 00:02:10,280 --> 00:02:12,980 And certainly when you think about how trees grow, 655 00:02:12,980 --> 00:02:15,170 how they stay healthy, it's all the same for us. 656 00:02:15,170 --> 00:02:16,703 They all need the same things. 657 00:02:17,990 --> 00:02:19,217 But who does urban 658 00:02:19,217 --> 00:02:21,770 and community forestry work? 659 00:02:21,770 --> 00:02:23,480 Sometimes it's folks like me, 660 00:02:23,480 --> 00:02:24,320 I've stayed in Vermont 661 00:02:24,320 --> 00:02:26,570 or in all of our other state programs. 662 00:02:26,570 --> 00:02:27,529 But often it's just 663 00:02:27,529 --> 00:02:29,840 a group of people who decide 664 00:02:29,840 --> 00:02:30,673 to go out one day 665 00:02:30,673 --> 00:02:33,800 and do some good work on the ground. 666 00:02:33,800 --> 00:02:35,298 So it's really an interesting 667 00:02:35,298 --> 00:02:36,980 time right now as we look at 668 00:02:36,980 --> 00:02:38,970 money coming into urban forestry 669 00:02:39,890 --> 00:02:40,820 and all the different 670 00:02:40,820 --> 00:02:42,200 models or infrastructure 671 00:02:42,200 --> 00:02:43,970 that might support and the 672 00:02:43,970 --> 00:02:44,810 bottom up approach 673 00:02:44,810 --> 00:02:46,883 that urban forestry takes, which is, 674 00:02:48,680 --> 00:02:50,630 volunteers, students. 675 00:02:50,630 --> 00:02:52,130 I mean I've taken out middle schoolers 676 00:02:52,130 --> 00:02:54,083 to do urban tree inventory. 677 00:02:55,160 --> 00:02:58,400 So in Vermont we have only four cities 678 00:02:58,400 --> 00:03:01,310 with professional arbor on staff, 679 00:03:01,310 --> 00:03:03,230 meaning the city that it's paying 680 00:03:03,230 --> 00:03:05,900 a person to care for trees. 681 00:03:05,900 --> 00:03:08,480 And those are Montpelier's, Burlington, 682 00:03:08,480 --> 00:03:10,640 south Burlington and Rutland. 683 00:03:10,640 --> 00:03:11,960 We have nine tree cities 684 00:03:11,960 --> 00:03:13,370 which means that they've hit some 685 00:03:13,370 --> 00:03:14,930 kind of benchmark that makes 686 00:03:14,930 --> 00:03:16,940 them a little more invested 687 00:03:16,940 --> 00:03:18,893 in urban forestry in their state. 688 00:03:20,030 --> 00:03:22,220 But again municipal the help is homegrown. 689 00:03:22,220 --> 00:03:24,713 This is an awesome group from I think Corrin. 690 00:03:24,713 --> 00:03:26,630 They went out on some march weekends 691 00:03:26,630 --> 00:03:29,480 and inventoried all the ash trees 692 00:03:29,480 --> 00:03:31,680 in the right of way along their rural roads. 693 00:03:32,660 --> 00:03:33,680 Our program estimates 694 00:03:33,680 --> 00:03:36,260 this year we've had over 10,000 hours 695 00:03:36,260 --> 00:03:38,210 of volunteer labor, over 696 00:03:38,210 --> 00:03:40,250 a hundred communities are developing 697 00:03:40,250 --> 00:03:41,087 or managing an urban 698 00:03:41,087 --> 00:03:43,250 and community forestry management plans 699 00:03:43,250 --> 00:03:45,800 with some kind of upper level approach. 700 00:03:45,800 --> 00:03:47,060 Keep in mind only four of 701 00:03:47,060 --> 00:03:49,460 those are actually paid staff 702 00:03:49,460 --> 00:03:52,550 and over 129 communities this year 703 00:03:52,550 --> 00:03:53,870 have received help either 704 00:03:53,870 --> 00:03:54,980 technical, financial, 705 00:03:54,980 --> 00:03:56,780 educational from our program. 706 00:03:56,780 --> 00:03:57,650 So it's happening. 707 00:03:57,650 --> 00:03:58,797 And what do you do to provide 708 00:03:58,797 --> 00:04:00,830 people with a tool to help 709 00:04:00,830 --> 00:04:03,113 them count, monitor their trees? 710 00:04:04,130 --> 00:04:05,900 There's a lot of high level maps 711 00:04:05,900 --> 00:04:07,160 that we can use and we do 712 00:04:07,160 --> 00:04:08,300 use at a state level. 713 00:04:08,300 --> 00:04:11,150 This is a tree equity score map, 714 00:04:11,150 --> 00:04:12,707 zoomed in on the Burlington area 715 00:04:12,707 --> 00:04:13,820 one 'cause that's where we are. 716 00:04:13,820 --> 00:04:15,080 And two, because that's the only one 717 00:04:15,080 --> 00:04:17,360 in Vermont that's been matched. 718 00:04:17,360 --> 00:04:20,060 Looking at, all the variety of factors 719 00:04:20,060 --> 00:04:21,590 that influence where 720 00:04:21,590 --> 00:04:22,970 and how trees are planted 721 00:04:22,970 --> 00:04:24,740 and where they can thrive. 722 00:04:24,740 --> 00:04:26,630 This is from American Forest 723 00:04:26,630 --> 00:04:27,650 across Vermont's Department 724 00:04:27,650 --> 00:04:29,210 of health goes to the town level. 725 00:04:29,210 --> 00:04:30,560 They're thinking about trees 726 00:04:30,560 --> 00:04:31,940 a lot particularly with regard 727 00:04:31,940 --> 00:04:34,640 to climate change and heat related illness. 728 00:04:34,640 --> 00:04:36,830 So this gets at a town by town level 729 00:04:36,830 --> 00:04:37,820 of where do you expect 730 00:04:37,820 --> 00:04:39,410 to find people with greater risk 731 00:04:39,410 --> 00:04:40,940 of heat related illness. 732 00:04:40,940 --> 00:04:42,920 We use this data to figure out 733 00:04:42,920 --> 00:04:44,090 where to implement some of 734 00:04:44,090 --> 00:04:45,830 our community canopy programs, 735 00:04:45,830 --> 00:04:46,663 which are tree giveaways 736 00:04:46,663 --> 00:04:49,763 to private homeowners and landowners. 737 00:04:51,620 --> 00:04:53,540 We are messing around with some of our own maps. 738 00:04:53,540 --> 00:04:55,640 This is a map we're working 739 00:04:55,640 --> 00:04:57,620 on this month with our ANR-GIS team 740 00:04:57,620 --> 00:05:00,050 about impervious land cover 741 00:05:00,050 --> 00:05:02,090 and tree canopy and sort of which 742 00:05:02,090 --> 00:05:05,870 is which and where should we go with technical help. 743 00:05:05,870 --> 00:05:07,610 But even this, you're not looking 744 00:05:07,610 --> 00:05:10,040 at that exact well on the ground where 745 00:05:10,040 --> 00:05:11,810 the tree may or may not go. 746 00:05:11,810 --> 00:05:13,880 So ultimately as they're saying this morning, 747 00:05:13,880 --> 00:05:14,870 there's nothing better 748 00:05:14,870 --> 00:05:16,250 than getting out in the woods, 749 00:05:16,250 --> 00:05:18,050 whether it's your urban or suburban 750 00:05:18,050 --> 00:05:19,430 or exurban or whatever 751 00:05:19,430 --> 00:05:21,800 forest and to go out with people 752 00:05:21,800 --> 00:05:24,323 who are interested to touch some trees. 753 00:05:25,220 --> 00:05:27,290 So we built a tool, 754 00:05:27,290 --> 00:05:28,550 our program built a tool back 755 00:05:28,550 --> 00:05:30,853 in 2013 as part of a caring 756 00:05:30,853 --> 00:05:32,810 for the urban forest grant 757 00:05:32,810 --> 00:05:35,108 that we received from the US Forest Service. 758 00:05:35,108 --> 00:05:37,070 And I put all the text here 759 00:05:37,070 --> 00:05:38,600 in case the slide goes out 760 00:05:38,600 --> 00:05:40,940 further and you want the history. 761 00:05:40,940 --> 00:05:42,740 But back then we teamed 762 00:05:42,740 --> 00:05:45,650 with our amazing GIS staff at agency 763 00:05:45,650 --> 00:05:47,120 Natural Resources who are pulled 764 00:05:47,120 --> 00:05:48,110 in a million directions. 765 00:05:48,110 --> 00:05:49,550 But we pulled them to us as 766 00:05:49,550 --> 00:05:52,580 often as we can to build on the 767 00:05:52,580 --> 00:05:56,000 ground digital urban tree inventory tool. 768 00:05:56,000 --> 00:05:57,811 And really urban could be a sidewalk 769 00:05:57,811 --> 00:05:59,180 and a green strip like this, 770 00:05:59,180 --> 00:06:02,120 it could be something like a municipal park, 771 00:06:02,120 --> 00:06:03,593 any kind of wooded area. 772 00:06:04,760 --> 00:06:05,930 You don't have to see a car 773 00:06:05,930 --> 00:06:08,093 to be looking at an urban tree. 774 00:06:08,960 --> 00:06:11,240 We've 20 municipalities initially 775 00:06:11,240 --> 00:06:13,490 completed some kind of inventory 776 00:06:13,490 --> 00:06:15,410 and when the technology became available 777 00:06:15,410 --> 00:06:18,260 in 2017, nine of these towns elected 778 00:06:18,260 --> 00:06:20,090 to have a web map viewer, 779 00:06:20,090 --> 00:06:21,620 which means they could actually 780 00:06:21,620 --> 00:06:24,080 go from like a snapshot printable PDF 781 00:06:24,080 --> 00:06:26,030 report to something that was interactive 782 00:06:26,030 --> 00:06:29,333 and they could update on the web. 783 00:06:30,260 --> 00:06:33,510 So in 2022 this we realized 784 00:06:34,700 --> 00:06:36,080 the software was different, 785 00:06:36,080 --> 00:06:37,670 the technology was different, 786 00:06:37,670 --> 00:06:38,750 we were a little out of date 787 00:06:38,750 --> 00:06:40,130 on what folks wanted in their 788 00:06:40,130 --> 00:06:41,298 urban tree inventory tool. 789 00:06:41,298 --> 00:06:43,970 And myself and Eric Enstro again 790 00:06:43,970 --> 00:06:47,090 from agency Natural Resources, 791 00:06:47,090 --> 00:06:49,680 GIS built a new tool and 792 00:06:51,560 --> 00:06:53,090 it's a little hard because there 793 00:06:53,090 --> 00:06:54,980 were a lot of things that were 794 00:06:54,980 --> 00:06:56,180 new technology even though 795 00:06:56,180 --> 00:06:57,230 the data we were collecting 796 00:06:57,230 --> 00:06:59,390 was really fairly straightforward. 797 00:06:59,390 --> 00:07:01,550 So I'm gonna walk you through a few of 798 00:07:01,550 --> 00:07:03,710 what that looks like so that you 799 00:07:03,710 --> 00:07:05,780 or people you know in your community 800 00:07:05,780 --> 00:07:07,340 can call me and we can go out 801 00:07:07,340 --> 00:07:10,149 and look at trees together using this tool. 802 00:07:10,149 --> 00:07:12,710 This is the end result of a web map. 803 00:07:12,710 --> 00:07:13,970 You were with a bunch of filters 804 00:07:13,970 --> 00:07:16,220 on one side and actual just dots 805 00:07:16,220 --> 00:07:17,900 on the ground showing where trees are, 806 00:07:17,900 --> 00:07:19,640 here they're displayed by conditions. 807 00:07:19,640 --> 00:07:22,430 So green is a good conditioning tree 808 00:07:22,430 --> 00:07:25,040 red all the way down to tech core or even dead. 809 00:07:25,040 --> 00:07:25,880 And we've even got a lot 810 00:07:25,880 --> 00:07:29,450 of these gray which is where there 811 00:07:29,450 --> 00:07:30,710 isn't a tree but there either 812 00:07:30,710 --> 00:07:31,910 used to be or could be. 813 00:07:31,910 --> 00:07:35,930 And so I like to show folks, 814 00:07:35,930 --> 00:07:36,763 how this works. 815 00:07:36,763 --> 00:07:40,040 You can start to filter by condition, by species, 816 00:07:40,040 --> 00:07:41,773 by when it was planted 817 00:07:41,773 --> 00:07:42,606 so you know when to go water it, 818 00:07:43,970 --> 00:07:45,710 all kinds of things that are 819 00:07:45,710 --> 00:07:47,363 low hanging fruit filters. 820 00:07:48,290 --> 00:07:50,180 Each little tree has a dashboard 821 00:07:50,180 --> 00:07:51,620 which we are super proud of 'cause 822 00:07:51,620 --> 00:07:53,050 that was a new thing 823 00:07:53,050 --> 00:07:54,350 to be able to show volunteers. 824 00:07:54,350 --> 00:07:56,570 This is a, little leaf linden, 825 00:07:56,570 --> 00:07:57,560 it's in good condition, 826 00:07:57,560 --> 00:07:59,840 it's between 12 and 18 inches diameter. 827 00:07:59,840 --> 00:08:01,100 Here's a picture and we can keep 828 00:08:01,100 --> 00:08:02,240 like a breadcrumb of all 829 00:08:02,240 --> 00:08:04,433 those trail of all those pictures. 830 00:08:05,870 --> 00:08:08,330 The information is first collected in field maps. 831 00:08:08,330 --> 00:08:10,303 We know we built it in collector first 832 00:08:10,303 --> 00:08:12,080 and honestly when you're working 833 00:08:12,080 --> 00:08:13,340 with hundreds of volunteers, 834 00:08:13,340 --> 00:08:15,170 just getting them to open field maps 835 00:08:15,170 --> 00:08:17,450 instead of collector is a really big deal. 836 00:08:17,450 --> 00:08:21,290 And so trying to keep all these changes really manageable 837 00:08:21,290 --> 00:08:23,003 and explainable to folks. 838 00:08:23,870 --> 00:08:27,980 We enter out location data and photos 839 00:08:27,980 --> 00:08:30,290 and field mask and again, 840 00:08:30,290 --> 00:08:31,490 it's really neat when you're dealing 841 00:08:31,490 --> 00:08:33,077 with urban trees to be able to keep, 842 00:08:33,077 --> 00:08:35,300 photos through the years of how 843 00:08:35,300 --> 00:08:37,820 that tree has grown or disappeared. 844 00:08:37,820 --> 00:08:39,173 That sometimes is the case. 845 00:08:40,070 --> 00:08:41,090 From the boat you'll see here 846 00:08:41,090 --> 00:08:42,590 there's some links where it says 847 00:08:42,590 --> 00:08:43,700 submit tree health survey, 848 00:08:43,700 --> 00:08:45,320 submit tree maintenance survey. 849 00:08:45,320 --> 00:08:48,770 So this is where using survey 123 850 00:08:48,770 --> 00:08:51,470 we link folks to the essentials, 851 00:08:51,470 --> 00:08:53,000 what species is it and that lets 852 00:08:53,000 --> 00:08:54,980 you enter the common name. 853 00:08:54,980 --> 00:08:56,750 So here's sugar maple. 854 00:08:56,750 --> 00:08:58,850 Keep in mind some people are like, it's a maple, 855 00:08:58,850 --> 00:09:00,080 that's all I can tell you. 856 00:09:00,080 --> 00:09:01,697 So you're able to enter maple 857 00:09:01,697 --> 00:09:03,650 and the Acer genus pops up 858 00:09:03,650 --> 00:09:05,060 and it's left this blank at that that. 859 00:09:05,060 --> 00:09:06,980 So really trying to again meet people 860 00:09:06,980 --> 00:09:08,060 where they're in the field. 861 00:09:08,060 --> 00:09:10,340 A required field is diameter class, 862 00:09:10,340 --> 00:09:13,520 which is just a really basic proxy for size. 863 00:09:13,520 --> 00:09:15,680 And I was looking at some of those, 864 00:09:15,680 --> 00:09:18,229 models popping up today of the whole tree in 3D 865 00:09:18,229 --> 00:09:21,020 and I wish we could do that easily, 866 00:09:21,020 --> 00:09:23,000 but ours is just a diameter tape 867 00:09:23,000 --> 00:09:24,255 and the bigger the diameter, 868 00:09:24,255 --> 00:09:26,377 the bigger the tree and maybe the older the tree. 869 00:09:26,377 --> 00:09:28,760 And that's like as fancy as a guest 870 00:09:28,760 --> 00:09:30,893 in terms of determining age or size. 871 00:09:32,810 --> 00:09:33,980 It would be great to measure height 872 00:09:33,980 --> 00:09:34,910 and canopy spread, 873 00:09:34,910 --> 00:09:38,003 but that's pretty time consuming for the volunteers. 874 00:09:39,230 --> 00:09:41,390 It's conditioned, good, fair, poor, dead. 875 00:09:41,390 --> 00:09:42,650 We have a couple little pictures 876 00:09:42,650 --> 00:09:43,960 to go along with that. 877 00:09:43,960 --> 00:09:45,593 It has been removed, 878 00:09:46,520 --> 00:09:47,549 which is a big deal if you're dealing 879 00:09:47,549 --> 00:09:49,400 with inventory over time. 880 00:09:49,400 --> 00:09:50,570 Just to scoot through some 881 00:09:50,570 --> 00:09:52,190 of the screens as they look, 882 00:09:52,190 --> 00:09:53,037 you can answer a couple questions 883 00:09:53,037 --> 00:09:54,650 about the tree management 884 00:09:54,650 --> 00:09:56,330 type 'cause how you take care 885 00:09:56,330 --> 00:09:57,650 of the tree is hugely influenced 886 00:09:57,650 --> 00:09:58,520 by who's going to do it. 887 00:09:58,520 --> 00:10:00,290 Is it a private landowner? 888 00:10:00,290 --> 00:10:01,320 Is it the town? 889 00:10:01,320 --> 00:10:03,980 Is it a utility right of way? 890 00:10:03,980 --> 00:10:04,813 Is this tree a memorial to someone 891 00:10:04,813 --> 00:10:07,580 and you should be contacting that person. 892 00:10:07,580 --> 00:10:08,413 And then lastly, 893 00:10:08,413 --> 00:10:09,800 some really basic information 894 00:10:09,800 --> 00:10:11,120 about the health of the tree. 895 00:10:11,120 --> 00:10:13,340 Keeping in mind that many folks 896 00:10:13,340 --> 00:10:14,720 are just people who like 897 00:10:14,720 --> 00:10:16,130 trees and they like working outside 898 00:10:16,130 --> 00:10:17,780 and they're going to see is they're deadwood, 899 00:10:17,780 --> 00:10:20,300 is there something we should talk about? 900 00:10:20,300 --> 00:10:21,830 And then really importantly at the bottom, 901 00:10:21,830 --> 00:10:23,900 being able to enter the planting gate. 902 00:10:23,900 --> 00:10:25,223 Trees need water, 903 00:10:26,360 --> 00:10:28,700 news to a lot of people, but they do need water 904 00:10:28,700 --> 00:10:30,560 and you do need to send folks out 905 00:10:30,560 --> 00:10:32,330 certainly for the first two years, 906 00:10:32,330 --> 00:10:33,330 watering these trees 907 00:10:35,630 --> 00:10:36,830 on a more regular basis. 908 00:10:36,830 --> 00:10:37,970 So being able to filter trees 909 00:10:37,970 --> 00:10:38,803 just by the date they're 910 00:10:38,803 --> 00:10:40,670 planted has been a real boom 911 00:10:40,670 --> 00:10:43,070 to volunteers who are like, okay, 912 00:10:43,070 --> 00:10:44,630 high school student x walk 913 00:10:44,630 --> 00:10:47,663 to these docks and water them and it works. 914 00:10:49,190 --> 00:10:51,200 So at this point, this little picture break you, 915 00:10:51,200 --> 00:10:52,280 your inventory could be done. 916 00:10:52,280 --> 00:10:53,270 This is our program manager 917 00:10:53,270 --> 00:10:55,670 at least happy out on a field day. 918 00:10:55,670 --> 00:10:57,617 And that can be the minimum of what volunteers do. 919 00:10:57,617 --> 00:10:59,390 The data syncs in the background 920 00:10:59,390 --> 00:11:01,610 and they see it on the web viewer. 921 00:11:01,610 --> 00:11:05,570 You can export a spreadsheet. 922 00:11:05,570 --> 00:11:07,100 People find those useful. 923 00:11:07,100 --> 00:11:07,933 They can tally, 924 00:11:07,933 --> 00:11:10,100 they can say how many, 925 00:11:10,100 --> 00:11:11,810 green ash do we have? 926 00:11:11,810 --> 00:11:12,800 You also have the option 927 00:11:12,800 --> 00:11:13,970 to go a little further 928 00:11:13,970 --> 00:11:17,570 and do a maintenance survey essentially 929 00:11:17,570 --> 00:11:18,410 if you're saying this tree 930 00:11:18,410 --> 00:11:21,410 looks pretty good, but yes I think we should monitor it, 931 00:11:21,410 --> 00:11:24,530 you can be done, but you can say, hey, 932 00:11:24,530 --> 00:11:26,802 I think we should do something. 933 00:11:26,802 --> 00:11:27,800 I don't know how much it costs 934 00:11:27,800 --> 00:11:28,633 or who's gonna do it, 935 00:11:28,633 --> 00:11:29,537 but I'm gonna write it down. 936 00:11:29,537 --> 00:11:31,100 And if you open up maintenance, 937 00:11:31,100 --> 00:11:32,926 yes it's still, 938 00:11:32,926 --> 00:11:35,390 gets to these super simple survey questions. 939 00:11:35,390 --> 00:11:36,340 Should we prune it? 940 00:11:36,340 --> 00:11:38,210 Is there too much mulch? 941 00:11:38,210 --> 00:11:39,530 Is it infested with something? 942 00:11:39,530 --> 00:11:42,350 And arbor should come look even 943 00:11:42,350 --> 00:11:43,183 at the bottom there. 944 00:11:43,183 --> 00:11:44,090 Chemical treatment now 945 00:11:44,090 --> 00:11:45,380 that we're treating some green ash 946 00:11:45,380 --> 00:11:47,870 to protect against Emerald dashboard, 947 00:11:47,870 --> 00:11:49,970 that opens up what's the chemical, 948 00:11:49,970 --> 00:11:51,860 who did it, what date? 949 00:11:51,860 --> 00:11:55,070 So it's really like basic management objectives 950 00:11:55,070 --> 00:11:56,330 that then you can also, 951 00:11:56,330 --> 00:11:59,600 as for anyone who's used, survey 123, 952 00:11:59,600 --> 00:12:01,670 keep a survey for each data point. 953 00:12:01,670 --> 00:12:03,110 I'm out there in 2015, 954 00:12:03,110 --> 00:12:05,330 I enter a survey, I'm out again in 2018, 955 00:12:05,330 --> 00:12:06,230 I enter another one 956 00:12:06,230 --> 00:12:07,730 and they all stay in the loop. 957 00:12:08,570 --> 00:12:10,130 So as your volunteers change 958 00:12:10,130 --> 00:12:11,270 and your coordinator changes, 959 00:12:11,270 --> 00:12:13,716 at least you have some record hopefully 960 00:12:13,716 --> 00:12:15,593 of what's going on. 961 00:12:17,750 --> 00:12:18,583 And so again, 962 00:12:18,583 --> 00:12:19,550 now you could be complete 963 00:12:19,550 --> 00:12:21,950 with another piece of inventory, 964 00:12:21,950 --> 00:12:23,600 just a picture break. 965 00:12:23,600 --> 00:12:24,710 Looks like he's hugging the tree 966 00:12:24,710 --> 00:12:25,760 but he's measuring it. 967 00:12:25,760 --> 00:12:26,593 Thanks. 968 00:12:28,910 --> 00:12:30,860 So who's using this tool? 969 00:12:30,860 --> 00:12:33,590 I mentioned it can be a lot of volunteers, 970 00:12:33,590 --> 00:12:34,970 usually municipalities that have 971 00:12:34,970 --> 00:12:36,563 a more professional program, 972 00:12:36,563 --> 00:12:38,750 have a professional software. 973 00:12:38,750 --> 00:12:40,790 Right now we have over 24,000 data 974 00:12:40,790 --> 00:12:42,230 points entered by 34 975 00:12:42,230 --> 00:12:45,050 municipalities and two nonprofits. 976 00:12:45,050 --> 00:12:46,430 It's a lot of data points 977 00:12:46,430 --> 00:12:47,780 but there's way more out there. 978 00:12:47,780 --> 00:12:50,480 34 out of, 250 towns. 979 00:12:50,480 --> 00:12:51,470 The data can be entered 980 00:12:51,470 --> 00:12:53,540 by foresters but lots of times it's 981 00:12:53,540 --> 00:12:56,840 volunteers, interns, students, university students. 982 00:12:56,840 --> 00:12:58,260 We had on the right there 983 00:12:59,926 --> 00:13:01,550 is one of our summer interns, Julia, 984 00:13:01,550 --> 00:13:03,140 who then went on to work with the 985 00:13:03,140 --> 00:13:05,690 UBM environmental problem solving class, 986 00:13:05,690 --> 00:13:08,180 had their class out in Colchester, 987 00:13:08,180 --> 00:13:10,490 Virgins and Rochester 988 00:13:10,490 --> 00:13:12,140 using the tool that inventory green 989 00:13:12,140 --> 00:13:14,150 ash specifically and present 990 00:13:14,150 --> 00:13:16,092 the town's with an inventory 991 00:13:16,092 --> 00:13:18,410 and a cost plan to deal 992 00:13:18,410 --> 00:13:21,230 with ash removal and treatment. 993 00:13:21,230 --> 00:13:22,160 But I think the biggest 994 00:13:22,160 --> 00:13:24,290 thing about inventory tools is that 995 00:13:24,290 --> 00:13:25,850 it just gets people spending 996 00:13:25,850 --> 00:13:29,600 time with their trees and by 997 00:13:29,600 --> 00:13:32,600 virtue with the people around, for sure, 998 00:13:32,600 --> 00:13:34,190 for me that's the biggest boom 999 00:13:34,190 --> 00:13:36,110 of doing inventory is being like, 1000 00:13:36,110 --> 00:13:38,960 I remember that tree, I remember that guy I remember. 1001 00:13:38,960 --> 00:13:41,120 And it makes it so much more real 1002 00:13:41,120 --> 00:13:42,320 when you're able to have 1003 00:13:43,340 --> 00:13:44,930 folks on the ground pay attention 1004 00:13:44,930 --> 00:13:47,420 to trees and spend some time outside. 1005 00:13:47,420 --> 00:13:48,710 They might spend 30 minutes, 1006 00:13:48,710 --> 00:13:50,660 they might spend days. 1007 00:13:50,660 --> 00:13:52,013 So that is really, 1008 00:13:52,013 --> 00:13:53,870 in a less quantitative way, 1009 00:13:53,870 --> 00:13:56,210 a huge benefit of having these easy 1010 00:13:56,210 --> 00:13:57,800 to use inventory tools. 1011 00:13:57,800 --> 00:13:59,120 I throw this up here to say 1012 00:13:59,120 --> 00:14:00,170 that these are the communities 1013 00:14:00,170 --> 00:14:02,090 that currently have data 1014 00:14:02,090 --> 00:14:04,220 in our digital system. 1015 00:14:04,220 --> 00:14:05,259 (audience applauding) 1016 00:14:05,259 --> 00:14:07,370 If you see your town up there, 1017 00:14:07,370 --> 00:14:10,430 maybe you wanna do something since 2014 1018 00:14:10,430 --> 00:14:11,263 and if you don't see 1019 00:14:11,263 --> 00:14:12,410 your town up there, then maybe 1020 00:14:12,410 --> 00:14:13,793 it's a great time to start. 1021 00:14:14,840 --> 00:14:17,990 I have just a couple more minutes. 1022 00:14:17,990 --> 00:14:19,130 There are many professional softwares 1023 00:14:19,130 --> 00:14:21,380 I just showcase two. 1024 00:14:21,380 --> 00:14:24,470 This is one's 1025 00:14:24,470 --> 00:14:26,360 tree keeper and tree plotter. 1026 00:14:26,360 --> 00:14:28,100 These are professional level tools 1027 00:14:28,100 --> 00:14:29,383 that Arbor will use. 1028 00:14:29,383 --> 00:14:31,370 City of Burlington uses one of them. 1029 00:14:31,370 --> 00:14:33,230 They have over 14,000 urban 1030 00:14:33,230 --> 00:14:35,210 and community trees to care for. 1031 00:14:35,210 --> 00:14:36,650 They're essentially way better 1032 00:14:36,650 --> 00:14:38,780 at spitting out work orders 1033 00:14:38,780 --> 00:14:40,070 and management tools. 1034 00:14:40,070 --> 00:14:42,650 Even get here to like ecological 1035 00:14:42,650 --> 00:14:43,730 benefits and greenhouse 1036 00:14:43,730 --> 00:14:47,030 gas benefits and things that are tool, 1037 00:14:47,030 --> 00:14:50,900 which by the way is free and doesn't offer. 1038 00:14:50,900 --> 00:14:51,950 We do have to be careful 1039 00:14:51,950 --> 00:14:53,090 that we don't compete with 1040 00:14:53,090 --> 00:14:54,590 professional products but honestly 1041 00:14:54,590 --> 00:14:55,670 it's not the same game 1042 00:14:55,670 --> 00:14:56,780 when you have a whole team 1043 00:14:56,780 --> 00:14:58,433 of folks doing this work, 1044 00:14:59,330 --> 00:15:00,860 you do need to pay for the software 1045 00:15:00,860 --> 00:15:02,750 and often a yearly maintenance fee. 1046 00:15:02,750 --> 00:15:03,952 And for many, many, 1047 00:15:03,952 --> 00:15:06,230 many communities that 1048 00:15:06,230 --> 00:15:07,820 isn't financially viable. 1049 00:15:07,820 --> 00:15:09,140 The Montpelier city arborist 1050 00:15:09,140 --> 00:15:10,220 who I spent a bunch of time 1051 00:15:10,220 --> 00:15:11,870 with, I asked him, wait, 1052 00:15:11,870 --> 00:15:13,070 how do he keep track of this stuff? 1053 00:15:13,070 --> 00:15:13,978 And I went in his truck 1054 00:15:13,978 --> 00:15:15,055 and there's a whole bunch of post-it 1055 00:15:15,055 --> 00:15:17,420 notes and his produced report 1056 00:15:17,420 --> 00:15:19,073 until you lose one I guess. 1057 00:15:20,270 --> 00:15:21,470 And lastly, just to show 1058 00:15:21,470 --> 00:15:22,997 what we do with the data, 1059 00:15:22,997 --> 00:15:26,210 here's just a few snapshots from Newport City. 1060 00:15:26,210 --> 00:15:28,550 This was a 2014 inventory. 1061 00:15:28,550 --> 00:15:30,140 There's a bunch of trees downtown, 1062 00:15:30,140 --> 00:15:32,210 it looks good when you zoom 1063 00:15:32,210 --> 00:15:33,470 in you start to see what the 1064 00:15:33,470 --> 00:15:36,170 health and quality of these trees are. 1065 00:15:36,170 --> 00:15:38,720 For example, even row of dead trees. 1066 00:15:38,720 --> 00:15:40,400 Just to reiterate that even 1067 00:15:40,400 --> 00:15:41,390 though there are trees, 1068 00:15:41,390 --> 00:15:42,530 not everyone's experience 1069 00:15:42,530 --> 00:15:44,900 with them is a good experience. 1070 00:15:44,900 --> 00:15:45,860 They could be dangerous, 1071 00:15:45,860 --> 00:15:47,750 they could be expensive. 1072 00:15:47,750 --> 00:15:48,860 So you're really getting down 1073 00:15:48,860 --> 00:15:50,400 at like a granular level of 1074 00:15:51,500 --> 00:15:52,700 okay, there's stops on the map 1075 00:15:52,700 --> 00:15:53,807 but what do they say 1076 00:15:53,807 --> 00:15:56,000 and what can we do differently? 1077 00:15:56,000 --> 00:16:00,020 St Alban City lots and lots of locations, 1078 00:16:00,020 --> 00:16:01,460 but when you zoom in you literally 1079 00:16:01,460 --> 00:16:03,200 see the story of these 1080 00:16:03,200 --> 00:16:05,646 are railroad tracks going through, 1081 00:16:05,646 --> 00:16:06,479 one side of the tracks 1082 00:16:06,479 --> 00:16:08,240 and the other, one side has lots of trees. 1083 00:16:08,240 --> 00:16:10,940 The other side has vacant locations, 1084 00:16:10,940 --> 00:16:13,640 which incidentally is our most popular 1085 00:16:13,640 --> 00:16:16,130 tree species in our inventory. 1086 00:16:16,130 --> 00:16:19,790 Vacant, second most popular. 1087 00:16:19,790 --> 00:16:20,903 Any these guesses? 1088 00:16:22,310 --> 00:16:24,050 It's not scientific, it's truly done by, 1089 00:16:24,050 --> 00:16:26,270 it's not like statistically validated 1090 00:16:26,270 --> 00:16:27,140 'cause it's just done by 1091 00:16:27,140 --> 00:16:28,550 people out as they are out. 1092 00:16:28,550 --> 00:16:29,450 But sugar maple, 1093 00:16:29,450 --> 00:16:30,283 if you're gonna, 1094 00:16:30,283 --> 00:16:31,910 which is really interesting as an urban tree, 1095 00:16:31,910 --> 00:16:34,010 it's very intolerant of salt. 1096 00:16:34,010 --> 00:16:35,420 And I think those trees will be-- 1097 00:16:35,420 --> 00:16:36,800 [Attendee 1] Norway maple. 1098 00:16:36,800 --> 00:16:38,600 Norway Maple isn't one of the most common ones, 1099 00:16:38,600 --> 00:16:42,110 but it's on there for sure, yeah, yep. 1100 00:16:42,110 --> 00:16:44,270 And town of Windsor, we're doing a lot of work there. 1101 00:16:44,270 --> 00:16:46,294 Now again, like looking at 1102 00:16:46,294 --> 00:16:48,440 that yellow is high impervious layer. 1103 00:16:48,440 --> 00:16:49,910 The darker green is actually 1104 00:16:49,910 --> 00:16:50,990 mix of impervious 1105 00:16:50,990 --> 00:16:55,990 and canopy and that simple map of just, 1106 00:16:56,150 --> 00:16:57,200 and then the light green 1107 00:16:57,200 --> 00:16:59,090 is actually primarily canopy 1108 00:16:59,090 --> 00:17:01,820 looking at this totally matches 1109 00:17:01,820 --> 00:17:05,600 with our urban tree boots on the ground survey. 1110 00:17:05,600 --> 00:17:09,170 This is our highly impervious area, 1111 00:17:09,170 --> 00:17:11,417 which also correlates very precisely 1112 00:17:11,417 --> 00:17:13,910 with low income neighborhood. 1113 00:17:13,910 --> 00:17:16,165 The middle there is the downtown 1114 00:17:16,165 --> 00:17:17,480 where there's a lot of trees 1115 00:17:17,480 --> 00:17:19,220 that folks that have been taken down 1116 00:17:19,220 --> 00:17:21,410 and then the outer are more leafier 1117 00:17:21,410 --> 00:17:23,420 neighborhoods around outskirts. 1118 00:17:23,420 --> 00:17:24,620 So that's an example. 1119 00:17:24,620 --> 00:17:26,720 We're able to, validate the boots 1120 00:17:26,720 --> 00:17:27,553 on the ground 1121 00:17:28,456 --> 00:17:30,410 with some of the modeling 1122 00:17:30,410 --> 00:17:32,750 and doing a similar project in Linden. 1123 00:17:32,750 --> 00:17:34,280 Those are Linden Institute high schoolers 1124 00:17:34,280 --> 00:17:35,360 who did a bunch of inventory 1125 00:17:35,360 --> 00:17:37,151 and we've put trees in the ground 1126 00:17:37,151 --> 00:17:40,130 in identified places 1127 00:17:40,130 --> 00:17:42,113 in our inventory just this fall. 1128 00:17:43,250 --> 00:17:45,800 So there's a lot of technical information about planting 1129 00:17:45,800 --> 00:17:47,690 trees in urban spaces. 1130 00:17:47,690 --> 00:17:49,760 It's hard like to be a tree in a sidewalk. 1131 00:17:49,760 --> 00:17:51,860 Well there's a lot of newer 1132 00:17:51,860 --> 00:17:53,177 methods going on about engineered 1133 00:17:53,177 --> 00:17:56,540 soils, structure cells. 1134 00:17:56,540 --> 00:17:59,150 Happy to talk about any of those, 1135 00:17:59,150 --> 00:18:01,220 but it's really an exciting time 1136 00:18:01,220 --> 00:18:02,240 to be in urban community 1137 00:18:02,240 --> 00:18:04,250 forestry, there's a lot of money coming 1138 00:18:04,250 --> 00:18:05,233 into the work right now. 1139 00:18:05,233 --> 00:18:07,820 And now we're going from here's 1140 00:18:07,820 --> 00:18:09,800 all the data and the money 1141 00:18:09,800 --> 00:18:11,597 and the modeling tools to here 1142 00:18:11,597 --> 00:18:13,607 are the people and trying to 1143 00:18:13,607 --> 00:18:15,620 get trees in the ground 1144 00:18:15,620 --> 00:18:16,920 and trying to make that as 1145 00:18:18,530 --> 00:18:20,300 straightforward and logical 1146 00:18:20,300 --> 00:18:22,010 and also hopefully fun 1147 00:18:22,010 --> 00:18:24,713 for people of all ages in these communities. 1148 00:18:26,726 --> 00:18:29,893 (audience applauding) 1149 00:18:32,000 --> 00:18:33,613 [Presenter] We have a couple of minutes for questions. 1150 00:18:35,480 --> 00:18:36,605 [Attendee 2] I was wondering about 1151 00:18:36,605 --> 00:18:37,936 your comment that 1152 00:18:37,936 --> 00:18:38,840 you have to be careful not 1153 00:18:38,840 --> 00:18:40,100 to compete with the private sector. 1154 00:18:40,100 --> 00:18:41,210 Is that any direction? 1155 00:18:41,210 --> 00:18:42,500 Because it's really interesting 1156 00:18:42,500 --> 00:18:44,390 about these subscription services. 1157 00:18:44,390 --> 00:18:45,920 You've got fairly small size 1158 00:18:45,920 --> 00:18:47,210 companies like Planet Geo 1159 00:18:47,210 --> 00:18:49,190 and some of the larger ones 1160 00:18:49,190 --> 00:18:50,780 and you are locked in and I do hear 1161 00:18:50,780 --> 00:18:52,370 from people in communities like, oh, 1162 00:18:52,370 --> 00:18:53,930 we don't have control over our data, 1163 00:18:53,930 --> 00:18:55,820 we wanna migrate systems or 1164 00:18:55,820 --> 00:18:58,130 we don't have the budget anymore. 1165 00:18:58,130 --> 00:18:59,750 And I just love your thoughts on, 1166 00:18:59,750 --> 00:19:00,950 I think what's great about this is 1167 00:19:00,950 --> 00:19:03,410 that you folks control the data. 1168 00:19:03,410 --> 00:19:04,490 It's easy to use. 1169 00:19:04,490 --> 00:19:05,900 It's free and I think 1170 00:19:05,900 --> 00:19:06,980 that's a huge benefit 1171 00:19:06,980 --> 00:19:09,200 and I yet to see anyone make 1172 00:19:09,200 --> 00:19:11,030 any important decision on street 1173 00:19:11,030 --> 00:19:12,320 tree planting based on whether 1174 00:19:12,320 --> 00:19:14,547 they're open forest is worth 1175 00:19:14,547 --> 00:19:16,880 $1 million or $29 million, 1176 00:19:16,880 --> 00:19:17,990 like what's your different decision? 1177 00:19:17,990 --> 00:19:19,160 You're gonna not plant trees 1178 00:19:19,160 --> 00:19:20,930 -because you think it's less. -Yes. 1179 00:19:20,930 --> 00:19:22,547 [Attendee 2] So I think what you folks 1180 00:19:22,547 --> 00:19:24,350 have done is like just simple, 1181 00:19:24,350 --> 00:19:26,870 straightforward and very effective. 1182 00:19:26,870 --> 00:19:27,703 Yeah, thanks. 1183 00:19:27,703 --> 00:19:28,880 It feels effective. 1184 00:19:28,880 --> 00:19:31,460 Also, I was at the New England ISA 1185 00:19:31,460 --> 00:19:34,250 that our conference for arborists 1186 00:19:34,250 --> 00:19:35,960 just a couple weeks ago 1187 00:19:35,960 --> 00:19:36,793 and they were talking 1188 00:19:36,793 --> 00:19:39,050 in other states how Davey Trees comes 1189 00:19:39,050 --> 00:19:41,480 in and does a urban tree inventory 1190 00:19:41,480 --> 00:19:43,142 and the town pays them. 1191 00:19:43,142 --> 00:19:44,193 I'm like, the town pays them, 1192 00:19:44,193 --> 00:19:45,260 I just like rustle off the 1193 00:19:45,260 --> 00:19:48,650 middle schoolers and we go out and that, 1194 00:19:48,650 --> 00:19:49,483 you can just see 1195 00:19:49,483 --> 00:19:51,950 that high level expertise having 1196 00:19:51,950 --> 00:19:53,690 a benefit that rolls out 1197 00:19:53,690 --> 00:19:56,090 in a way that volunteers are vested. 1198 00:19:56,090 --> 00:19:57,690 But then the middle schoolers 1199 00:19:58,902 --> 00:19:59,735 go to high school and then go 1200 00:19:59,735 --> 00:20:02,382 to college and you have to start over. 1201 00:20:02,382 --> 00:20:03,340 (audience applauding) 1202 00:20:03,340 --> 00:20:06,110 The professional schools are pretty (indistinct) 1203 00:20:06,110 --> 00:20:07,370 and some states do 1204 00:20:07,370 --> 00:20:08,690 use their money to like grant 1205 00:20:08,690 --> 00:20:11,120 that subscription software to municipality. 1206 00:20:11,120 --> 00:20:12,080 But yeah, all this data 1207 00:20:12,080 --> 00:20:14,510 is held at state of Vermont. 1208 00:20:14,510 --> 00:20:16,190 People ask me what does the state do with it? 1209 00:20:16,190 --> 00:20:18,480 And frankly nothing 1210 00:20:19,490 --> 00:20:21,440 it's for the town and we can do things with it. 1211 00:20:21,440 --> 00:20:24,500 We do like for our own planning purposes, 1212 00:20:24,500 --> 00:20:26,540 but the intent is not like, 1213 00:20:26,540 --> 00:20:28,475 tell us your information and we'll keep it. 1214 00:20:28,475 --> 00:20:30,867 It's really for them. 1215 00:20:30,867 --> 00:20:31,700 I know I'm standing between you 1216 00:20:31,700 --> 00:20:33,473 and lunch end of the question. 1217 00:20:35,105 --> 00:20:36,560 [Attendee 3] Yes (indistinct). 1218 00:20:36,560 --> 00:20:38,510 I'm curious about the interaction 1219 00:20:38,510 --> 00:20:40,027 with utilities in (indistinct), 1220 00:20:40,910 --> 00:20:41,985 is that something, 1221 00:20:41,985 --> 00:20:43,328 I mean I assume you run into that a lot. 1222 00:20:43,328 --> 00:20:44,454 [Joanne] Yeah. 1223 00:20:44,454 --> 00:20:45,672 [Attendee 3] And yeah anyway, 1224 00:20:45,672 --> 00:20:46,620 how do you deal with that? 1225 00:20:46,620 --> 00:20:49,670 [Joanne] Yeah, so we have in all of our inventory tools, 1226 00:20:49,670 --> 00:20:51,650 we also have a rapid roadside 1227 00:20:51,650 --> 00:20:52,670 ash inventory tool, 1228 00:20:52,670 --> 00:20:54,520 which is this narrowed down. 1229 00:20:54,520 --> 00:20:57,080 It just ash trees gets 1230 00:20:57,080 --> 00:20:58,430 into the tree management type. 1231 00:20:58,430 --> 00:21:01,220 Is there a utility line there or not? 1232 00:21:01,220 --> 00:21:03,170 The utilities are pretty self-sufficient. 1233 00:21:03,170 --> 00:21:04,340 They have some neat software 1234 00:21:04,340 --> 00:21:05,600 that goes well beyond ours 1235 00:21:05,600 --> 00:21:08,300 in terms of managing trees. 1236 00:21:08,300 --> 00:21:11,000 Generally if a utility line is there, 1237 00:21:11,000 --> 00:21:12,500 the town does not deal with it 1238 00:21:13,430 --> 00:21:14,263 until it falls on the ground, 1239 00:21:14,263 --> 00:21:15,980 the two in the morning and then 1240 00:21:15,980 --> 00:21:17,660 the time will go and deal with it. 1241 00:21:17,660 --> 00:21:19,790 So it gets into that management type. 1242 00:21:19,790 --> 00:21:21,890 We've asked utilities, do you want our data? 1243 00:21:21,890 --> 00:21:22,953 Like that's useful 1244 00:21:22,953 --> 00:21:25,130 and particularly regarding ASH 1245 00:21:25,130 --> 00:21:27,066 and generally the answer is no. 1246 00:21:27,066 --> 00:21:29,520 I think they're just overwhelmed. 1247 00:21:30,763 --> 00:21:32,723 They don't have (indistinct). 1248 00:21:32,723 --> 00:21:34,610 [Attendee 3] Slowly getting better at it. 1249 00:21:34,610 --> 00:21:36,440 So you're planting in utility, right? 1250 00:21:36,440 --> 00:21:37,277 Is that something? 1251 00:21:37,277 --> 00:21:39,080 [Joanne] No, not usually. 1252 00:21:39,080 --> 00:21:41,420 I mean it's hard because you need 1253 00:21:41,420 --> 00:21:44,180 something small and there 1254 00:21:44,180 --> 00:21:45,590 are small trees but it's still a tree, 1255 00:21:45,590 --> 00:21:48,320 it's still big and so yeah, 1256 00:21:48,320 --> 00:21:50,720 generally when I'm identifying places 1257 00:21:50,720 --> 00:21:52,700 in communities to plant, 1258 00:21:52,700 --> 00:21:56,540 it's honestly no utilities can be 1259 00:21:56,540 --> 00:21:58,250 but if they don't have trees in other places, 1260 00:21:58,250 --> 00:22:00,170 let's go to the other places first 1261 00:22:00,170 --> 00:22:01,880 and then underground utilities as well. 1262 00:22:01,880 --> 00:22:03,927 Like dig safe is in my speed that now. 1263 00:22:06,227 --> 00:22:07,550 Yeah, 1264 00:22:07,550 --> 00:22:09,050 it's tricky and you see those 1265 00:22:09,050 --> 00:22:10,633 trees that get planted, 1266 00:22:10,633 --> 00:22:12,350 they're just on my street, 1267 00:22:12,350 --> 00:22:15,590 someone's planted at on a northern red Oak under utility 1268 00:22:15,590 --> 00:22:17,540 right under and you can see it's future. 1269 00:22:17,540 --> 00:22:20,413 It's gonna be a leaner, yeah. 1270 00:22:22,151 --> 00:22:24,290 One question. 1271 00:22:24,290 --> 00:22:25,460 Yep. 1272 00:22:25,460 --> 00:22:28,820 [Attendee 4] You mentioned, so like groups, 1273 00:22:28,820 --> 00:22:30,560 even getting groups that are used 1274 00:22:30,560 --> 00:22:31,760 to doing like paper forms 1275 00:22:31,760 --> 00:22:34,010 and stuff onto even a simple 1276 00:22:34,010 --> 00:22:35,870 centralized database can be challenging. 1277 00:22:35,870 --> 00:22:36,710 So I was wondering if you had 1278 00:22:36,710 --> 00:22:38,780 any success stories or advice 1279 00:22:38,780 --> 00:22:39,920 from groups that like went 1280 00:22:39,920 --> 00:22:43,430 from sticky notes to centralized what database. 1281 00:22:43,430 --> 00:22:44,360 [Joanne] I have a couple of stories 1282 00:22:44,360 --> 00:22:45,230 where it didn't work. 1283 00:22:45,230 --> 00:22:48,740 Like towns tried to do it and they were, 1284 00:22:48,740 --> 00:22:50,150 it was too hard or they tried 1285 00:22:50,150 --> 00:22:51,440 to pay subscription 1286 00:22:51,440 --> 00:22:53,603 and couldn't keep up the payment. 1287 00:22:54,890 --> 00:22:57,410 Yes, one way we do that is that both field maps 1288 00:22:57,410 --> 00:22:58,790 and survey 123 are free. 1289 00:22:58,790 --> 00:23:00,800 They can be downloaded onto your smartphone. 1290 00:23:00,800 --> 00:23:02,810 We also have about a dozen cell 1291 00:23:02,810 --> 00:23:04,280 enabled iPads that along our 1292 00:23:04,280 --> 00:23:06,470 program and we bring them to the community, 1293 00:23:06,470 --> 00:23:09,023 we help people use them and some people 1294 00:23:09,023 --> 00:23:11,180 are like great click, click, click and they're done. 1295 00:23:11,180 --> 00:23:13,550 Others they don't know how to turn it on. 1296 00:23:13,550 --> 00:23:14,840 We're starting at the beginning. 1297 00:23:14,840 --> 00:23:17,000 So having that equipment and the iPads 1298 00:23:17,000 --> 00:23:18,830 are great 'cause they're there 1299 00:23:18,830 --> 00:23:20,210 and they're just easier to see. 1300 00:23:20,210 --> 00:23:23,360 So yeah, I would say that 1301 00:23:23,360 --> 00:23:26,303 there's most of those towns that are in there, 1302 00:23:27,680 --> 00:23:29,030 well not most, maybe a quarter 1303 00:23:29,030 --> 00:23:30,620 had some kind of inventory to start 1304 00:23:30,620 --> 00:23:31,610 and the rest were just like 1305 00:23:31,610 --> 00:23:33,590 what's inventory where, which we do. 1306 00:23:33,590 --> 00:23:35,360 So there are still a lot of towns 1307 00:23:35,360 --> 00:23:36,594 that use pen and paper, 1308 00:23:36,594 --> 00:23:38,330 particularly the small village towns. 1309 00:23:38,330 --> 00:23:39,654 They've got 1310 00:23:39,654 --> 00:23:41,090 20 trees on their urban green 1311 00:23:41,090 --> 00:23:41,960 and those are the only 1312 00:23:41,960 --> 00:23:43,880 municipal trees in town. 1313 00:23:43,880 --> 00:23:45,210 And really for them 1314 00:23:46,670 --> 00:23:48,560 we always have like a tier one option, 1315 00:23:48,560 --> 00:23:50,540 which was pet pen paper 1316 00:23:50,540 --> 00:23:53,060 and people you know doing a tally 1317 00:23:53,060 --> 00:23:55,340 and that can work just as well. 1318 00:23:55,340 --> 00:23:57,710 [Attendee 4] Does showing like the web interface, 1319 00:23:57,710 --> 00:23:59,990 does that make people like, 1320 00:23:59,990 --> 00:24:00,830 Ooh I want that or does 1321 00:24:00,830 --> 00:24:02,570 that scare people even more sometimes? 1322 00:24:02,570 --> 00:24:03,980 [Joanne] Both. 1323 00:24:03,980 --> 00:24:07,250 I think folks now even compared to five years ago, 1324 00:24:07,250 --> 00:24:09,470 are more willing to have that web viewer. 1325 00:24:09,470 --> 00:24:11,150 Five years ago when we started 1326 00:24:11,150 --> 00:24:14,270 mapping ash more in more 1327 00:24:14,270 --> 00:24:16,550 detail the big ash was okay 1328 00:24:16,550 --> 00:24:18,410 for town meeting day we want a map 1329 00:24:18,410 --> 00:24:20,488 on our wall of all the ash trees in town. 1330 00:24:20,488 --> 00:24:23,030 And really it was just like dots 1331 00:24:23,030 --> 00:24:24,470 that outlined our roads, 1332 00:24:24,470 --> 00:24:26,810 it wasn't useful data except 1333 00:24:26,810 --> 00:24:28,187 it look neat I guess. 1334 00:24:28,187 --> 00:24:30,410 And so now having an interactive map 1335 00:24:30,410 --> 00:24:31,880 where they could zoom in, 1336 00:24:31,880 --> 00:24:33,860 everyone wants to see their house. 1337 00:24:33,860 --> 00:24:37,370 So making that easy for people. 1338 00:24:37,370 --> 00:24:40,460 I think the trouble is still 1339 00:24:40,460 --> 00:24:42,830 that it's not easy to share at select 1340 00:24:42,830 --> 00:24:44,783 board meeting at 9:00 PM at night. 1341 00:24:45,830 --> 00:24:46,700 People just want 1342 00:24:46,700 --> 00:24:48,170 the handout in front of them. 1343 00:24:48,170 --> 00:24:49,850 So we do in our tool have 1344 00:24:49,850 --> 00:24:51,830 a print version where you can, 1345 00:24:51,830 --> 00:24:53,840 print the map extent, 1346 00:24:53,840 --> 00:24:56,330 even print a report about that tree, 1347 00:24:56,330 --> 00:24:57,560 here's everything that happened 1348 00:24:57,560 --> 00:25:00,320 and who did it and here's some pictures. 1349 00:25:00,320 --> 00:25:01,970 'Cause like eight and a half by 11 1350 00:25:01,970 --> 00:25:03,593 printouts still pretty handy. 1351 00:25:04,430 --> 00:25:05,263 Yeah. 1352 00:25:05,263 --> 00:25:06,096 [Attendee 4] Cool, thank you. 1353 00:25:06,096 --> 00:25:07,544 [Joanne] Carl. 1354 00:25:07,544 --> 00:25:09,620 [Carl] The US Forest Service has developed 1355 00:25:09,620 --> 00:25:11,540 a software called i-Tree, 1356 00:25:11,540 --> 00:25:12,770 which I'm sure you're familiar with. 1357 00:25:12,770 --> 00:25:15,440 Did you consider that in developing 1358 00:25:15,440 --> 00:25:16,340 your own inventory? 1359 00:25:16,340 --> 00:25:18,533 Are there pros and cons that you did one? 1360 00:25:19,550 --> 00:25:21,980 [Joanne] Surprisingly I'm not super familiar with it. 1361 00:25:21,980 --> 00:25:23,840 When I started using i-Tree I was using 1362 00:25:23,840 --> 00:25:26,190 it in really rural towns 1363 00:25:28,460 --> 00:25:30,200 and there wasn't enough information 1364 00:25:30,200 --> 00:25:31,220 for me 'cause they were like 1365 00:25:31,220 --> 00:25:33,230 largely forested towns when 1366 00:25:33,230 --> 00:25:35,873 this project started in 2013, 1367 00:25:38,660 --> 00:25:39,493 I wasn't there. 1368 00:25:39,493 --> 00:25:40,850 So I'm not sure what the interface 1369 00:25:40,850 --> 00:25:42,680 between the two was, 1370 00:25:42,680 --> 00:25:44,840 but it does mean that our information, 1371 00:25:44,840 --> 00:25:46,370 at least as far as I know someone 1372 00:25:46,370 --> 00:25:47,203 else might be able to tell 1373 00:25:47,203 --> 00:25:48,650 me better is gonna be 1374 00:25:48,650 --> 00:25:50,630 hard to just click a button 1375 00:25:50,630 --> 00:25:52,310 and wrap into i-Tree. 1376 00:25:52,310 --> 00:25:54,050 So there could have been some benefits there, 1377 00:25:54,050 --> 00:25:54,920 but it's not something 1378 00:25:54,920 --> 00:25:58,313 that's been hugely popular in Vermont yet. 1379 00:25:59,960 --> 00:26:00,860 And I think part of that has 1380 00:26:00,860 --> 00:26:02,892 to do with like the rural (indistinct). 1381 00:26:02,892 --> 00:26:03,725 [Carl] I think you might have been 1382 00:26:03,725 --> 00:26:06,030 pre i-Tree developing this. 1383 00:26:06,030 --> 00:26:06,927 -[Joanne] 2013. -[Carl] Yeah. 1384 00:26:06,927 --> 00:26:07,760 [Joanne] Could be. 1385 00:26:07,760 --> 00:26:08,593 Yeah, yeah. 1386 00:26:08,593 --> 00:26:10,460 And then like Burlington for example, 1387 00:26:10,460 --> 00:26:12,473 they're using their own platform. 1388 00:26:14,000 --> 00:26:15,440 So it'd be interesting to talk 1389 00:26:15,440 --> 00:26:17,360 to here to say like how do 1390 00:26:17,360 --> 00:26:18,410 you go from there to i-Tree, 1391 00:26:18,410 --> 00:26:20,262 which for folks who haven't seen i-Tree it 1392 00:26:20,262 --> 00:26:22,488 add a lot of ecosystem benefits of trees, 1393 00:26:22,488 --> 00:26:26,183 the short way of describing it. 1394 00:26:27,140 --> 00:26:29,870 [Attendee 5] Which is appropriate when, right. 1395 00:26:29,870 --> 00:26:30,890 That's the bigger question 1396 00:26:30,890 --> 00:26:32,360 I think is when would i-Tree be 1397 00:26:32,360 --> 00:26:33,800 the easier tool to use 1398 00:26:33,800 --> 00:26:36,650 and when would you call it the 1399 00:26:36,650 --> 00:26:38,321 municipal tree inventory is the name of the tool? 1400 00:26:38,321 --> 00:26:39,154 [Joanne] Yeah. 1401 00:26:39,154 --> 00:26:40,010 [Attendee 5] that would be really interesting 1402 00:26:40,010 --> 00:26:41,150 to see because one of my 1403 00:26:41,150 --> 00:26:42,710 questions is how do you prioritize 1404 00:26:42,710 --> 00:26:44,780 where you're going to inventory, 1405 00:26:44,780 --> 00:26:46,609 where you better assemble the troops 1406 00:26:46,609 --> 00:26:51,080 and what if somebody wanted to, I don't know, 1407 00:26:51,080 --> 00:26:53,480 what if a different state wanted to implement this? 1408 00:26:53,480 --> 00:26:54,313 Is this something 1409 00:26:54,313 --> 00:26:56,897 that A&R would share the tool or? 1410 00:26:58,253 --> 00:27:00,380 [Joanne] Yes, we do share it. 1411 00:27:00,380 --> 00:27:01,340 We used to keep, 1412 00:27:01,340 --> 00:27:02,780 if there's a username and password 1413 00:27:02,780 --> 00:27:04,340 to log in so that the software 1414 00:27:04,340 --> 00:27:06,412 is free, for anyone who wants to go to lunch 1415 00:27:06,412 --> 00:27:08,262 I totally understand. 1416 00:27:08,262 --> 00:27:10,679 (indistinct) 1417 00:27:13,135 --> 00:27:16,970 But, yeah, there's a username and password. 1418 00:27:16,970 --> 00:27:19,460 Every volunteer who uses the platform 1419 00:27:19,460 --> 00:27:21,710 uses the same username and password. 1420 00:27:21,710 --> 00:27:23,090 So it's not a secret, 1421 00:27:23,090 --> 00:27:25,430 but we did have it on our web page 1422 00:27:25,430 --> 00:27:26,420 and that ended up being a 1423 00:27:26,420 --> 00:27:27,950 bad idea 'cause folks other states 1424 00:27:27,950 --> 00:27:28,783 did use it and 1425 00:27:29,690 --> 00:27:33,650 started to like blow the back end of our system. 1426 00:27:33,650 --> 00:27:35,120 The way that we use this tool 1427 00:27:35,120 --> 00:27:39,230 is 98% opportunistic. 1428 00:27:39,230 --> 00:27:40,780 So that's why I put the list up 1429 00:27:42,140 --> 00:27:43,970 who's gone here because it takes 1430 00:27:43,970 --> 00:27:46,647 a person coming and saying, 1431 00:27:46,647 --> 00:27:48,830 "Hey, we are thinking about inventory, can you help?" 1432 00:27:48,830 --> 00:27:50,390 And right now it's still like, 1433 00:27:50,390 --> 00:27:52,550 it comes to my email and I feel like, yes, 1434 00:27:52,550 --> 00:27:55,760 when's a good time, let's assemble the crew. 1435 00:27:55,760 --> 00:27:58,040 We do have some targets to reach, 1436 00:27:58,040 --> 00:27:59,178 particularly some of these communities 1437 00:27:59,178 --> 00:28:01,010 that did an inventory 1438 00:28:01,010 --> 00:28:03,710 that's now seven, eight, nine years old 1439 00:28:03,710 --> 00:28:05,120 and need some updates. 1440 00:28:05,120 --> 00:28:06,830 We're talking with (indistinct) actually 1441 00:28:06,830 --> 00:28:10,089 about urban tree cover as 1442 00:28:10,089 --> 00:28:11,990 done by remote sensing 1443 00:28:11,990 --> 00:28:15,440 and drones and that particularly 1444 00:28:15,440 --> 00:28:16,700 noting change over time is 1445 00:28:16,700 --> 00:28:18,320 gonna be hugely useful. 1446 00:28:18,320 --> 00:28:20,150 But yeah, it's still very 1447 00:28:20,150 --> 00:28:23,180 like who's interested and 1448 00:28:23,180 --> 00:28:26,240 who's got a group on Sunday that wants to do this? 1449 00:28:26,240 --> 00:28:28,400 Schools sometimes publicly adults. 1450 00:28:28,400 --> 00:28:30,050 [Attendee 5] Yeah and and do you provide training? 1451 00:28:30,050 --> 00:28:32,150 I mean, how do you know that people 1452 00:28:32,150 --> 00:28:33,942 know the species and it's not (indistinct). 1453 00:28:33,942 --> 00:28:34,902 [Joanne] Oh yeah, they go and help 'em. 1454 00:28:34,902 --> 00:28:36,800 Yeah, yeah, it's a lot of fun. 1455 00:28:36,800 --> 00:28:40,220 I mean we meet, at the library or whatever 1456 00:28:40,220 --> 00:28:41,840 and walk around a fair bit 1457 00:28:41,840 --> 00:28:43,520 and then gives them some resources too. 1458 00:28:43,520 --> 00:28:46,010 But usually you end up with 1459 00:28:46,010 --> 00:28:48,062 like the people who know trees 1460 00:28:48,062 --> 00:28:49,409 really well, the people 1461 00:28:49,409 --> 00:28:51,453 who know apps really well, 1462 00:28:51,453 --> 00:28:52,286 (audience laughing) 1463 00:28:52,286 --> 00:28:54,020 those are not the same people. 1464 00:28:54,020 --> 00:28:55,460 And then someone like doesn't care 1465 00:28:55,460 --> 00:28:56,420 about trees or apps, 1466 00:28:56,420 --> 00:28:57,253 but they like to drive 1467 00:28:57,253 --> 00:29:00,236 and they wanna help and really it 1468 00:29:00,236 --> 00:29:02,120 works out. 1469 00:29:02,120 --> 00:29:03,146 But yeah, I get a lot of pictures 1470 00:29:03,146 --> 00:29:05,840 and sometimes, I don't know, it's great for me 1471 00:29:05,840 --> 00:29:08,333 to the urban trees can be kind of weird. 1472 00:29:10,095 --> 00:29:10,940 [Attendee 5] Yeah, yeah. 1473 00:29:10,940 --> 00:29:12,260 [Joanne] I know you had a question in just. 1474 00:29:12,260 --> 00:29:13,297 [Attendee 6] Well I think you asked the one, 1475 00:29:13,297 --> 00:29:14,230 it was basically, 1476 00:29:14,230 --> 00:29:17,603 is this shareable, the data, not the tool, 1477 00:29:18,961 --> 00:29:20,508 but is the data shareable or? 1478 00:29:20,508 --> 00:29:21,341 [Joanne] Yeah. 1479 00:29:21,341 --> 00:29:22,174 [Attendee 6] Are there restrictions on that? 1480 00:29:22,174 --> 00:29:23,069 [Joanne] What. 1481 00:29:23,069 --> 00:29:23,902 [Attendee 6] And the second part 1482 00:29:23,902 --> 00:29:25,730 of the question is can that be shared 1483 00:29:25,730 --> 00:29:28,310 with regulators, like regulatory agencies 1484 00:29:28,310 --> 00:29:30,980 within different states for responding 1485 00:29:30,980 --> 00:29:32,750 to invasive species and things like that? 1486 00:29:32,750 --> 00:29:34,500 [Joanne] Oh yeah, great question. 1487 00:29:35,600 --> 00:29:37,040 The data is shareable. 1488 00:29:37,040 --> 00:29:39,764 It used to be hosted on our PT A&R 1489 00:29:39,764 --> 00:29:42,560 (indistinct) natural resources atlas. 1490 00:29:42,560 --> 00:29:45,590 So literally the public could go in and see it. 1491 00:29:45,590 --> 00:29:46,550 We're not keeping it there 1492 00:29:46,550 --> 00:29:47,930 right now due to some technical 1493 00:29:47,930 --> 00:29:49,250 glitches I don't really understand. 1494 00:29:49,250 --> 00:29:50,723 But it'll get back up there. 1495 00:29:52,430 --> 00:29:55,850 You can when folks wanna export spreadsheets 1496 00:29:55,850 --> 00:29:58,160 and like get a little bit of backend help, 1497 00:29:58,160 --> 00:29:59,720 I tend to send it to them, 1498 00:29:59,720 --> 00:30:02,239 but it's on the VTA and our open data portal. 1499 00:30:02,239 --> 00:30:04,550 It's not secretive information 1500 00:30:04,550 --> 00:30:06,920 in any way, but it, 1501 00:30:06,920 --> 00:30:09,650 you have to understand, who did it, 1502 00:30:09,650 --> 00:30:12,983 what their parameters were when it happened. 1503 00:30:14,000 --> 00:30:15,290 If they didn't get to this tree, 1504 00:30:15,290 --> 00:30:16,430 there's no trees there, 1505 00:30:16,430 --> 00:30:17,325 maybe they just didn't get there. 1506 00:30:17,325 --> 00:30:20,570 So it has some of that backstory 1507 00:30:20,570 --> 00:30:21,860 and it tends to be most useful 1508 00:30:21,860 --> 00:30:24,129 for the municipalities and for us to be like, 1509 00:30:24,129 --> 00:30:24,962 hey, what's going on? 1510 00:30:24,962 --> 00:30:26,255 [Attendee 7] Citizen scientist program. 1511 00:30:26,255 --> 00:30:28,160 So for community science programs, 1512 00:30:28,160 --> 00:30:30,020 so there's gonna be some data gaps 1513 00:30:30,020 --> 00:30:30,920 and things like that. 1514 00:30:30,920 --> 00:30:32,083 -Lot that's-- -Yeah. 1515 00:30:32,083 --> 00:30:32,916 [Attendee 7] That's understandable. 1516 00:30:32,916 --> 00:30:34,160 And some mis-identification. 1517 00:30:34,160 --> 00:30:35,060 You definitely open one app 1518 00:30:35,060 --> 00:30:35,978 and you're like, that's fine. 1519 00:30:35,978 --> 00:30:40,694 -[Attendee 7] Yeah, yeah. -(audience laughing) 1520 00:30:40,694 --> 00:30:42,590 [Joanne] Yeah, yeah, it's a delight to work with folks 1521 00:30:42,590 --> 00:30:43,970 on the ground with the tool. 1522 00:30:43,970 --> 00:30:46,405 It's not the most efficient thing in the world, 1523 00:30:46,405 --> 00:30:49,760 but it's providing a lot of useful data 1524 00:30:49,760 --> 00:30:53,600 and this is the 2022 upgrade. 1525 00:30:53,600 --> 00:30:55,637 So tell your friends. 1526 00:30:55,637 --> 00:30:57,260 (audience laughing) 1527 00:30:57,260 --> 00:30:58,562 Thanks all. 1528 00:30:58,562 --> 00:31:01,729 (audience applauding)