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