Albany consultants recommend proactive street‑tree program, 150 trees/year planting target

Consultants for the City of Albany presented a draft Street Tree Management Plan to the Park, Recreation & Open Space Commission, recommending the city move from a primarily reactive maintenance model to a proactive, programmatic approach that would aim to increase street‑tree canopy and formalize responsibilities for planting and removals.

Jeff Bond, Community Development Director, opened the presentation and turned the discussion over to consultants from HortScience/Bartlett Consulting: Daria Berar, managing consulting urban forester, and Ryan Settle, consulting arborist. The consultants reviewed the plan’s structure (Chapters 1–6), analysis of the current street‑tree inventory, benchmarking with peer Bay Area cities and, most substantively, the plan’s goals and recommended actions in Chapter 6.

The draft sets a near‑term canopy objective for street trees and recommends a citywide planting strategy focused on species and age diversity, climate‑adapted selections and planting the “right tree in the right place.” Consultants said street trees now account for roughly 4% of Albany’s overall canopy; the plan recommends raising that street‑tree share to 5% canopy cover and tracking progress via periodic remeasurement (the presentation recommended remeasuring canopy about every 10 years using tools such as i‑Tree Canopy). To meet the goal, the consultants recommended planting roughly 150 street trees a year, subject to available planting space, budget and staffing.

The plan urges the city to codify responsibility and standards for…