The Iowa DNR, in cooperation with Iowa forestry professionals and USDA Forest Service, conducts inventories and completes management plans for Iowa communities of 5,000 residents or less on an ongoing basis.
The purpose of an inventory is to gather accurate information about the composition and condition of a community’s city-owned tree resources, so that the community is able to manage its trees most effectively.
Inventory and management plan benefits include:
- Monetary valuation of the numerous benefits that trees provide to a community
- Creation of a long-term management plan and justification for allocation of necessary funding
- Identification and assessment of hazard trees, which pose a potential threat to life and property
- Determination of short and long-term management and canopy goals
- Prioritization of community’s forestry resources, including staff time and equipment, and increased efficiency of such resources
- Maintenance and growth of a safe, healthy, and productive urban forest
Most importantly, the information gathered through an inventory and compiled into a management plan gives a community the tools it needs to move from a reactive position of responding to storm damage, invasive pests such as emerald ash borer (EAB), and other catastrophes after they occur, to a proactive position where it can potentially minimize the harm these events are capable of doing before they happen.
For interactive and up-to-date information about the city-owned trees in your community, please click the "View My Community's Trees" bar below and follow these INSTRUCTIONS (NOTE: to view a management plan for your community, or to determine whether your community has had an inventory conducted recently, please refer to the management plans listed under the "Urban Forestry Management Plans" heading below).
View My Community's Trees