In cities across America, efforts to preserve and enlarge the tree canopy in support of
both sustainability and beautification goals have grown in importance over the past several
years. The U.S. Conference of Mayors Community Trees Task Force was created in 2006 in
response to mayors’ increasing awareness of the value of urban forests and their increasing
interest in ways that communities can be improved through expansion of community tree
programs. The Task Force requested that Conference staff undertake a survey of current
efforts in cities to expand and protect the urban tree canopy; The Home Depot Foundation
provided funding for the effort. The goal was to produce a baseline of information – essentially,
a report on the state of community trees in America – that could be shared by all mayors and
other stakeholders concerned with the management and care of an increasingly important urban
forest.
The Conference survey was distributed in September to the nation’s principal cities –
basically those having populations of 30,000 and larger. Responses were received by early
November from 135 cities in 36 states in all regions of the country. For each question, survey
findings were calculated based on the number of cities which responded to that question, not on
the total number responding to the survey. Among the survey’s key findings: