Casper's updated urban-forest inventory: about 15,000 public trees, $13 million in structural value and recommendations to diversify and prioritize risk

City staff and consultant Bill Scott presented the council with Casper's first comprehensive urban-forest inventory since 2002, covering roughly 15,000 publicly managed trees and assigning the municipal stock a structural asset value of about $13 million.

Scott, an ISA master certified arborist, said the inventory documented 65 species and flagged concentrations of green ash (13.7%), cottonwood (10.9%) and honeylocust (~10.5%), which creates vulnerability to a single pest or disease. "When we deal with numbers that high or percentages that high within our population, it does set those up for potential risk to single insect, single diseases," he said, citing past losses from Dutch elm disease and emerald ash borer in other communities.

Condition metrics were largely positive: Scott reported about 53.9% of trees in good condition and 37.9% in fair, totaling roughly 92% combined. The assessment identified about 338 hazardous trees and roughly 1,255 trees in high or extreme risk categories; staff said the GIS-tagged inventory will let the city prioritize mitigation before storm-driven failures.

Scott walked the council through quantified ecosystem services the inventory produces: about 10.4 million gallons of annual stormwater interception, approximately 128 metric tons of annual carbon sequestration, about 7.8 tons of annual air-pollutant removal and an estimated $98,400 per year in energy savings from reduced heating and cooling demand.

Katie, the city's weed-and-pest/urban-forestry supervisor, summarized recent operations: since last April staff planted 104 trees, pruned roughly 130 trees (about half of those to restore sightlines for traffic signage), removed 33 high-risk trees and 50 low-risk removals, and logged about 1,100 staff hours. She said the city currently relies on two arborists dedicated to the urban-forest program and will contract larger removals under a recent state grant; staff cautioned the program is constrained by limited in-house capacity.

On funding, staff said the published $57,000 urban-forestry line includes $15,000 for Holiday Square lights (privately raised), leaving approximately $42,000 for core urban-forest operations. The Magnamera fund principal was reported at $135,000, producing about $3,800 in interest annually to support the program. Staff also compared Casper's budget to Cheyenne's FY26 urban-forest program (about $890,000), noting a marked disparity in labor and scale.

Scott recommended four priorities: proactive risk reduction (use the inventory to target high-risk trees before storms), increased species diversification to avoid single-pest vulnerabilities, continued investment in both new-tree establishment and mature-canopy preservation, and use of GIS data for strategic prioritization.

What's next: Staff said contracted removals and required replantings will proceed under an awarded grant, and they will return with budget and program options to implement the consultant's recommendations. Council asked staff to explore funding partners, carbon-credit opportunities and potential modifications to a street-tree cost-share program for homeowners.

Quotes are drawn from the consultants and city staff during the presentation; no formal action or vote was taken at the meeting.