Forestry Professors Leading Team to Inventory Trees on Auburn's Campus

Researchers from Auburn University and the U.S. Forest Service recently inventoried all trees within the managed areas of Auburn University’s campus in order to provide information and techniques for managing the urban forest and planning future projects at Auburn.

“Using a model developed by U.S. Forest Service personnel, we have begun to evaluate potential ecosystem services on the Auburn campus,” said Art Chappelka, a SFWS professor who is leading the project. “These data will be used by the U.S. Forest Service to evaluate their model and to provide more efficient techniques in data collection and by Auburn personnel for the proper management of campus trees.”

In addition, data collected from the project will be included in the development of the Climate Action Plan, which the university and the Office of Sustainability have initiated.

The researchers at Auburn include graduate student Nick Martin and several undergraduate students under the direction of a faculty and staff team. The team includes Chappelka and SFWS associate professor Ed Loewenstein from the School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences; professor Gary Keever from the College of Agriculture’s Departmentof Horticulture; and Charlie Crawford, superintendent of Auburn University’s Landscape Services.

Data collected included location of the tree, height, caliper, crown width and health. Approximately 6,000 trees were inventoried this fall. Collection was completed in mid-October and sent to the U.S. Forest Service in Athens where the data will be entered in the Forest Service model.

During 2010, a training session will be conducted on campus to educate professionals from the region on methods to inventory trees in urban settings and systems to analyze and utilize the data.

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