Here's how technology could help Wauwatosa with its goal of planting more trees
There are more than 30,000 publicly owned trees in the city of Wauwatosa.
All those trees could generate a lot of paperwork when one needed to be taken down.
In fact, it used to take about six separate paper forms for a city worker to cut down a tree and plant a new one. A form to approve the removal. A form after the tree was removed. A form to remove the stump. Another form to create a new hole for the new tree. And so on.
But Wauwatosa is trying to change that process. It's now using a geographic information system (GIS) to change how trees are pruned, removed or planted. The city is putting that system to work by cataloging all of the trees that exist on public property in Wauwatosa.
This is saving the city time and money, according to Paul Vepraskas, the GIS manager for Wauwatosa
“It gives us a good idea of where we can plant trees, what we can plant and how we maintain those trees,” said Vepraskas. “It then saves us time and money in how we manage those trees.”
The system includes the exact location of the tree and then tracks things like size, species and when the tree was last pruned. This system will likely be used by residents in the future as well.
David Simpson, Wauwatosa’s director of public works, said normally residents would have to call the city if they see a tree they think is diseased. But in the future, Simpson said, a resident could simply look up the tree on a website and report the defect.
“Having that tool available to use will make everything much easier for us going forward,” Simpson said.
Emerald ash borer, which was found in Wauwatosa in 2013, destroyed about 300 trees. The city is currently treating around 3,500 trees that were affected by this as well. GIS could help negate that in the future.
When a diseased tree is located, workers can get to the tree quicker, because of the new system.
It’s the city’s goal to plant more trees soon, and different varieties of trees, Simpson said.
How could GIS technology help the city get more trees?
Part of the inventory process is finding new areas where trees can be planted, Simpson said.
Usually, when a city removes a tree it plants one new one.
But the city is trying to increase that number.
“Now, through these kind of projects you can anticipate that we have X amount of ash trees, this is how much it will take to replace them, and this is the cost to the environment of losing those trees as well,” Vepraskas said.
Vepraskas said city arborists have already gone door to door in areas where they might plant trees in the future. He said some of the residents who learned they could have a tree near their home were "elated."
City workers are cataloging the trees now. They had inventoried just over 22,000 trees as of Nov. 29.
Simpson said the cataloging process should be completed in about six months.
“The more trees the better,” he said.