Sam Haywood, a consultant with Davie Resource Group, told the Greeley Historic Preservation Commission on July 21 that the draft Greeley Urban Forest Strategic Plan recommends a 20-year vision and operations guidance for the city’s trees. “We have about an 8 percent tree canopy here in the city,” Haywood said, summarizing the plan’s land-cover and inventory analyses.

The plan pairs a high-resolution canopy map with the city’s tree inventory to identify where new planting would have the greatest benefit. Haywood said the inventory shows honey locust as the single largest species at about 11 percent of the maintained-inventory population and green ash at about 8 percent. “We only have one tree that’s over that threshold in the inventory,” he said, referring to species concentration guidance; he also warned that green ash raises risk because of emerald ash borer.

Why it matters: the consultant presented modeled benefits including stormwater capture, heat-island reduction and social-impact prioritization for underserved neighborhoods. Using the U.S. Forest Service tool i-Tree Eco, Haywood reported annual ecological benefits of roughly $53,000 and an estimated replacement value of about $40,000,000 for the inventoried public tree stock.

Commissioners and participants pressed the consultant on maintenance, costs and equity. Commissioners asked whether the plan includes operational resource estimates; Haywood said the draft does include an operations review of staff and resources, and that the department is reviewing that draft. On the prospect of treating versus removing ash trees, Haywood said trunk injections can be effective and that “this is a biannual or I think the program from the city does every 3 years of, an injection into the trunk of the tree,” while also describing “shadow planting” and other strategies to diversify species composition.

Historic neighborhoods were a recurring concern. Commissioners noted older street trees appear unpruned and in some cases have not been maintained; the consultant said trees located in city-managed public spaces are pruned by staff, whereas street trees adjacent to private property remain the homeowner’s responsibility and require outreach and education. Commissioners asked whether the city subsidizes pruning on private property; the consultant said he did not have that detail on hand but would relay the question to the principal planner.

Participants discussed irrigation and the difficulty of adding or maintaining street-side trees where older homes lack irrigation. The commission discussed Share the Shade, a local program that provides trees to homeowners but requires irrigation and places maintenance responsibility on the homeowner. Commission members urged more outreach so residents know what programs exist and what maintenance obligations follow planting.

Haywood said the plan’s prioritized planting map ranks locations by combined benefits (stormwater, heat mitigation and social need) and indicated that targeted planting in “high” and “very high” priority areas could substantially increase canopy acreage. He described the plan as proposing both strategic plantings and an operations focus: continue planting while committing more resources to maintenance so young trees mature into the canopy.

Next steps: Haywood said the consulting team has delivered a draft Word copy to the Forestry Division and that the city will host a third community meeting in the fall focused on adoption and implementation. The presentation included contact information and a Speak Up QR code for community comment.

The commission did not take a formal vote on the plan; the presentation was a request for feedback and for Historic Preservation Commission engagement around historic neighborhoods and potential voluntary historic-tree recognition programs.