Study shows ‘significant’ loss of trees

WHITPAIN >> There has been a substantial loss of the tree canopy in the township over the last five years.

That’s the conclusion of a study by Davey Tree based on aerial photography and ground truthing — defined as confirming through an actual field check, according to Whitpain Township Shade Tree Commission Chairman and principal at SED Design Landscape Architects S. Edgar David.

“Every five years we like to update the survey assessment, and the last go-round showed a substantial loss of canopy,” he said. The data, collected in 2015 and completed in 2016, “represents a 2015 assessment,” he said.

The township received the report in December and is still evaluating the results to determine “the exact amount of loss,” David said. “We’re also trying to put things in place to value the canopy as a metric.”

The previous study, for 2010, showed the canopy covered 3,537.64 acres, or 43 percent of the 8,256-acre township, “slightly above the 40 percent urban tree canopy recommended by American Forests for cities east of the Mississippi River,” according to a report on the township’s website.

In the intervening five years, American Forests’ tree canopy recommendation has gone up — based on the belief that the Eastern Seaboard is capable of providing more forest cover, while there have been “significant losses in the township [canopy cover] including over 200 acres in residential land uses,” David said.

There are no township mandates regarding canopy cover, he said, but “it would be nice to see an ordinance put in place to encourage people to preserve the canopy.”

“Trees provide a host

benefits,” the township website says. “They conserve energy, reduce carbon dioxide levels, improve air quality, and mitigate stormwater runoff. In addition, trees provide numerous economic, psychological, and social benefits.”

There are several reasons for the tree canopy loss, David said, including the emerald ash borer and “people taking trees down,” and “the turnpike [widening] project and other developments have contributed significantly — the Turnpike lost tens of acres,” he said.

“Over 100,000 trees” would be needed to make up for the loss, he said, adding, “we haven’t figured out how to pay for that yet.”

Members of the Shade Tree Commission and township staff met with representatives from the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission in February to determine how “to reforest and revegetate portions of the Northeast Extension running through Whitpain,” the township’s Wire reported.

“A tentative agreement to relocate the fence line, so it is less obtrusive, and plant trees on the turnpike property” — the township will plant trees on its own adjacent property, as well — has been worked out, “with the intent and expectation we will do it over time,” David said. The PTC has not offered any funding, but “the township has committed some as far as a matching grant,” he said.

The STC will try to encourage “individual tree plantings and woodland plantings to recapture over 300 acres of tree canopy in the township,” David said. “The Turnpike [effort] is a small part of that.”

A Free Street Tree Planting Program was piloted in 2016 to provide and plant a free tree on an individual’s property, if it meets certain criteria, he said. With a limited budget, only 20 trees a year can be given away, he said.