Milton Hopes to Conduct Tree Survey

Milton wants help from the Georgia Urban Forestry Council to survey the city's trees and to learn how to manage them to preserve the tree canopy.

City Council met Monday at city hall and approved a grant request from the Georgia Urban Forestry Council to prepare a tree inventory, assessment and management plan for the city.

“This is the first study required in order to apply for more grant funds to implement a tree canopy management plan and/or to fund changes that may be required to the tree ordinance. This report sets a baseline so that we can track loss of tree canopy, and publicly owned and maintained trees in particular,” said Community Development Director Lynn Tully.

“Over time we should be able to see these changes and be able to adjust our requirements to meet the goal of preservation of significant trees and conservation of the tree canopy in total," Tully said, seen on the city's video archive of the meeting on its Web site.

A proposal was requested by the City of Milton to Davey Resource Group to conduct an inventory on approximately 3,500 trees. This would include a condition assessment for each tree as well a maintenance recommendations. The cost is estimated around $20,000.

Such an inventory will help the city assess maintenance needs such as trees with defects that cannon be cost effectively or practically treated and therefore should be removed.

Tree preservation is an important cause for Milton. In February 2010 the city became one of the few municipalities in Georgia to be named a "Tree City USA" by the Arbor Day Foundation.

Milton is one of only 130 cities is the state to be awarded the distinction, and one of only 3,400 nationwide.