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City presentation: Lakewood urban forest assessment finds 24.4% tree canopy, inventories public trees and identifies planting opportunities
Summary
Consultants presented a year‑long urban forest assessment that found Lakewood’s tree canopy at 24.4% citywide, inventoried nearly 12,000 public trees on city property, mapped plantable areas and identified funding already earmarked for initial implementation.
Consultants from FACET presented the results of Lakewood’s 2024 urban forest assessment to the planning commission on Feb. 19, reporting that citywide tree canopy cover is 24.4% and identifying opportunities and constraints for meeting the city’s canopy goals.
Kim Frappier, a senior urban forester and environmental planner with FACET, and Sam Payne, an ecologist and certified arborist on the FACET team, told commissioners the team used three methods to analyze trees across the city: lidar‑based canopy analysis to calculate tree canopy cover and plantable area; an on‑the‑ground inventory of publicly managed trees (city right‑of‑way, parks and selected institutional grounds); and a rapid forest landscape assessment for larger natural areas.
The lidar‑based urban tree canopy analysis (2020 flight) returned a citywide canopy cover of 24.4%. FACET calculated roughly 3,400 acres of plantable area — about 31.4% of the city — and noted roughly half of that acreage would need planting to reach the city’s stated goal of 40% canopy cover by 2050.
Inventory highlights presented by FACET included:
• An on‑site inventory of nearly 12,000 public trees collected by ISA‑certified arborists, with species, size and…
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