Campus and Community Policy, Water, Climate Adaptation

The City of Fairfax is a Tree City USA, and has beautiful and beneficial trees lining the streets. But there's a problem: the city has no full time arborist on staff with enough authority to make tree care decisions, and no set policy on tree management and placement. This has resulted in poor street tree selection, care, and placement, to the detriment of the trees and the residents who benefit from healthy trees.

The City of Fairfax has no full time arborist when neighboring cities like Falls Church and Vienna have 2-5 arborists on staff to care for their trees. My goal in this project has been to justify to the Fairfax City Council that hiring 1-2 full time arborists for the City of Fairfax would be to the benefit of the city and the community at large, both financially, and environmentally. I chose to do this through utilization of the U.S. Forest Service's iTree Streets software, which with 2007 and 2010 street tree survey data, helped me create a cost-benefit anlaysis of the ecosystem services provided by the street trees in the City of Fairfax, and allowed me to illustrate how proper care and placement of said trees would not only environmentally and aesthetically benefit the City, but would provide financial benefits as well. 

Using tree survey data, MS excel and access, and the iTree Street software, I successfully conducted the analysis which showed that benefits such as natural storm water runoff reduction, energy savings, CO2 reduction, air quality improvement, and property value increase were all positive income generating results of having healthy trees lining the city streets. Using this information I generated a draft report stating that the annual benefits of the street trees in the City of Fairfax are $516,625, with annual tree maintenece costs of $181,705, resulting in annual net benefits of $334,920. The report also included policy suggestions regarding street tree placement and care, as well as information and assessments about the current state of the City's street trees, and suggestions for a new tree survey to be conducted. The report was well-recieved among the Fairfax City Community Development and Planning Dept, and is currently undergoing the final edits in order for it to be included in the City's official Comprehensive Plan for 2017, and the suggestions therein to be considered by the City Council.

Hopefully this assessment report will help justify the hiring of full time City Arborists to the Fairfax City staff, as well as inspire new policies regarding tree care and placement. 

There is still more to be done with this project however, as it will take many hands to conduct an updated city tree survey, especially if parks are to be included. 

 

10455 Armstrong St
Fairfax, VA 22030
United States

Trees, Climate Change Mitigation, Air Quality, Storm Water, EcoSystem Services, Environmental Economics, Habitat, Community Development