20
The Davey Bulletin | November/December 2016
i-TREE TURNS 10
Ten years ago, convincing municipal and residential clients of the value of
their trees – and the importance of planting and maintaining them – proved
a tall task for many arborists.
That started to change with
the introduction in 2006 of
i-Tree, an integrated suite of
software products and urban
forestry assessment tools
designed to assess urban
forests and the benefits they
provide. i-Tree grew out of a
partnership between Davey,
the U.S. Forest Service, Arbor Day Foundation, Society of Municipal Arborists,
International Society of Arboriculture and Casey Trees.
"Ten years ago, when we first launched i-Tree, we were focused on the municipal
arborist," said Scott Maco, director of research and development, the Davey
Institute. "The goal was advocacy, demonstrating that trees do have value and
they're worth the cost to plant and maintain. And that was a real struggle for
urban foresters and arborists 10 years ago."
Before the introduction of i-Tree, arborists had little evidence to argue with in
favor of supporting their budgets. Arborists knew trees captured storm water,
provided energy-saving shade and improved air quality, but they couldn't quantify
those benefits. Municipalities commonly cut into or eliminated urban forestry
budgets in favor of supporting traditional public services.
"Fast-forward to today, and the landscape has changed," Maco said. "The idea
of quantifying ecosystem services is still new, but now, thanks to i-Tree, we have
data that translates into language to help us make management decisions and
encourage better stewardship of the urban forest."
MY DAVEY
i-Tree users
worldwide:
125,000
U.S. – 112,000
Australia – 2,600
Canada – 2,300
Mexico – 300
China – 307
Brazil – 221
Members of the i-Tree programming team who work
at the Davey Institute from left are: Mike Binkley,
Lianghu Tian, Kevin Whalen and David Ellingsworth.
Left: Promotional tags like this one showcasing the
benefits a single tree can provide are calculated using the
National Tree Benefit Calculator, developed through i-Tree.
"
…thanks to i-Tree, we have data
that help us encourage better
stewardship of the urban forest.
– Scott Maco
director of research and development
Davey Institute
"