Davey Tree Flipbooks

L ike any park asset, trees need careful management. Would your travel budget be effective if you didn't track fuel expenses? How efficient would your mechanics be if they didn't log mainte- nance to equipment? Trees need the same consideration for parks managers to get the most long-term value out of their ability to shade, filter storm water, block sound pollution, provide wildlife habitat and perform other services within your park. Laura Bauernfeind, principal forester for the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks, wanted a better method for managing the hundreds of thousands of trees spread across the parks' 16,000 acres throughout the city of Los Angeles and in Southern California. "In order to manage something and care for something you have to know what you have," Bauernfeind says. "You need to have an inventory and system in place to manage your priorities and track that valuable infrastructure." SCREEN TIME. That's why L.A. City Parks partnered with Davey for the use of TreeKeeper ® , Davey's proprietary web-based tree management software. Davey's software suite provides the tools to manage an existing tree inventory, administer work orders generated internally, compile flexible data reports and manage calls from community residents all on mobile platforms. The software includes an integrated mapping program. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) mapping pinpoints each tree within a jurisdiction. TreeKeeper's ability to run on iPads, Toughbooks and other tablets allows personnel to work with real-time data updated in the field to reflect inventory additions, maintenance work and other data fields. Dana Karcher, market manager, Western region of Davey Resource Group, says TreeKeeper's flexibility allows L.A. City Parks to tailor data reports by almost any category from tree species to age, forest density and maintenance frequency. "By developing reports about where she may be lacking trees, Bauernfeind can determine where they should be planting new trees," Karcher says. "She can also look at species balance to see what else she should be planting to level out the different types of species throughout the parks." BETTER DATA, BETTER TREES. Bauernfeind estimates that L.A. City Parks is responsible for a minimum of 337,600 trees. Of those, the parks worked with Davey to inventory about 60,000 to date. "From a managerial standpoint, having a permanent record of the work we're doing on a tree-by-tree basis so that we can prioritize our work is invaluable," Bauernfeind says. Using iPads, Bauernfeind's staff can take pictures of tree damage, planting and main- tenance and instantly input the photos into TreeKeeper to supplement the other data tracked by the software. The ability of staff to quickly update the software in the field allows administrative personnel to work with real-time data when planning responses to storms, wildfires and other weather events or managing construction and expansion projects. APPLYING KNOWLEDGE. Davey and L.A. City Parks are working on a pilot project using TreeKeeper to track drought effects. The parks are experimenting with tree growth regulators to determine if they can potentially ease the stress on trees struggling with drought. TreeKeeper tracks which tree species in what locations are being tested and will log the results over time. Karcher credits L.A. City Parks' staff with embracing the software and taking a smart, progressive approach to managing its tree population. "L.A. City Parks is a quiet leader in urban forestry in California," she says. "L.A. City Parks manages a lot of trees for many citizens. In many cases we take for granted the trees in our parks, but the L.A. Parks team does a great job of assuring that residents and visitors alike have a healthy urban forest when they come to enjoy the numerous parks throughout the city of Los Angeles." Entering and organizing tree inventory data using TreeKeeper ® software benefits more than 60,000 trees. March/April 2015 | 7 Employees of L.A. City Parks can use iPads and Davey's TreeKeeper ® tree management software to track information to manage the parks' tree canopy. © Leon Boroditsky The cherry trees at Balboa Lake are just some of the more than 330,000 trees L.A. City Parks is responsible for maintaining.

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