Listed below are resources that can help you find a selection of trees that fit your local climate, growing conditions, and desired attributes. The online calculators can help you calculate the energy savings potential of each tree based on the species, climate zone, and planting site. There are also resources for information on managing an urban forestry program.
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A blue oak tree. Photo credit: Mark Sinner, US Forest Service |
Tree Guides
Urban Forest Ecosystems Institute
Run by the California Polytechnic State University, the Urban Forest Ecosystems Institute provides a comprehensive online tree guide. You can search for trees by name or by a detailed set of attributes, including health and environmental concerns, site conditions and constraints, leaf, flower, and fruit qualities, special uses, and more. Trees can be specified to be native to California. For each tree, the site provides a record containing growing conditions, characteristics, and notes.
The U.S. Forest Service
The U.S. Forest Service’s Pacific Southwest Research Station has calculated and described the benefits and costs of planting trees for specific climate zones, including Sacramento, the San Joaquin Valley, and Coastal Southern California. These guides recommend trees for specific climate zones and can help better inform community leaders about creating and maintaining a community tree program:
- Northern California
- San Joaquin Valley
- Coastal Southern California
- Inland Empire Communities
- Northern Mountain and Prairie
The California Native Plant Society
This organization is dedicated to preserving the native ecology of California. With 33 chapters around the state, the CNPS can help you find which plants are native to your specific region.
Tree Calculators
iTree
Developed by the USDA Forestry Services, iTree is a state-of-the-art, peer-reviewed software tool that analyzes and calculates the benefits of urban forests. Designed to help communities with urban forestry management, the software helps to quantify the many environmental benefits of urban forests. iTree Streets focuses on calculating the benefits of urban street trees. iTree Design uses Google Maps to analyze the energy, air quality, and stormwater-runoff benefits for a specific tree at a specific location and placement relative to a building. Communities can use iTree Species to choose between various tree species based upon the desired function and the geographical area. iTree software, including iTree Streets, is available for free as a download or CD-ROM from the website (www.itreetools.org), as are resources and manuals. iTree Design is available online (click here).
The National Tree Benefits Calculator
This user-friendly website uses iTree Streets data (see above) to calculate a basic approximation of the monetary benefits of trees planted in residential neighborhoods. Though it does not offer the depth and detail offered by the iTree Streets software tool, this tool provides a good basic approximation for those who want a quick estimate.
Center for Urban Forest Research Tree Carbon Calculator (CTCC)
This resource from the U.S. Forest Service calculates the amount of carbon dioxide sequestered (removed from the air and stored) by tree-planting projects. The CTCC is programmed in an Excel spreadsheet and provides information for a single tree located in one of 16 United States climate zones. The spreadsheet can tell users the quantity of carbon dioxide stored in the tree over its lifetime as well as in a single year. It can also calculate its cooling benefits and the resulting energy savings both in terms of electricity saved and tons of carbon dioxide avoided.
Program Implementation and Design
Urban Forest Management Plan
This comprehensive website, run by the California Urban Forest Council and the Inland Urban Forest Council, provides a detailed collection of resources to help communities manage their trees and forests.
Cooling our Communities: A Guidebook on Tree Planting and Light-Colored Surfacing
Part of Cooling our Communities, a publication from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Chapter 5, “Lessons Learned from Successful Tree Programs” (p63-92), is a good overview of best practices taken from urban forestation programs from around the country. The PDF can be found on the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab site, the EPA website, and on the University of California site.
Urban Tree Risk Management: A Community Guide to Program Design and Implementation
This publication from the U.S. Forest Service offers a guide on how to design and implement a program to manage, evaluate, and reduce hazards from trees, such as disease.