1. Peeking Beneath the
Canopy
Insights from using i-Tree Eco to monitor
Burlington’s urban forest
James Duncan, Aswini Cherukuri and Emily Van Wagoner
December 12, 2013

2. i-Tree Eco
• Detailed plot-based survey to assess
overall state of urban forest
• 200 random points across city
• Tree condition and physiology, plot
cover mixes, building interactions

3. Involving UVM students
through service-learning

4. Tree health
• 1026 trees on 159 plots surveyed
• Estimated 68.8
trees/acre and
over 180,000
trees in
Burlington
• Around 30%
canopy cover
(slightly low)

5. Land use and tree density

6. Ecosystem Services - Air
pollution mitigation
Sulfur
dioxide, $63
Carbon
Monoxide, $513
Nitrogen
dioxide, $1,082
Ozone, $61,496
Small particulates
(2.5um), $198,46
0
Medium
particulate
(10um), $241,988

7. Ecosystem Services - Carbon
sequestration
Sugar maple
sequesters 21.7% of
all carbon taken up by
Burlington trees
Courtesy of Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
Red oak stores the
most, holding 16.5% of
Burlington’s tree-bound
carbon
Courtesy of City of Augusta, GA

8. Outline
• Data from the class
• Data from all classes
• What it tells us
• What we’ll do next
•

9. Next Steps
• Build out ability to use iTree Eco as a
monitoring tool
• Develop better year-toyear plot system
• Develop change
analysis products
• Improve customization
for students

10. Exploring sampling along
forest gradient
• Ecological
communities
• Development
pressure
• Elevation
• Others?
VMC
Intensive Site at
Mt. Mansfield
Current i-Tree
Survey

11. Exploring statewide
monitoring using iTree Eco
methodology
• Possible integration with
Forest Inventory and
Analysis plots

12. Thank you!
Contact: james.duncan@uvm.edu