 The city of Portland is compiling its first comprehensive inventory of the city's trees in 150 years. As city arborist Jeff Tarling told Brian Knoblock, the city is using the latest technology to make this inventory the most complete one in our history. Jeff, we're here on a great summer day in Portland, and we're counting trees. What's going on? Well, we're working on a first phase of the GIS tree inventory that we received a grant from Project Canopy from the Maine Forest Service, and we started here on the eastern prom and we're working our way across the peninsula. We started our first inventory work back in 2000 after the ice storm, and we recorded somewhere around 7,000 records on mostly the east steering and north gearing areas. We never got a chance to do the in-town areas, so this gives us a chance to start in town and give us an idea of what we have for a resource of trees in Portland. This will cover from the eastern prom, Lincoln Park, all the way across the peninsula to the western prom, and then we'll fill in some of the other neighborhoods that we didn't complete before. And you have two interns working out here and they're using some new technology. What are they doing? Well, we looked at a variety of methods to collect the data, and we found that we can use an online version using iPads. We download the city's aerial photographs, so we get an aerial photograph. While they're collecting the data, they actually have a GPS on the iPad so it tells them where they are. It cues up the map. They can look at the tree in front of the house. They'll click a little dot where the tree is, and then they can write down what type of tree it is, what condition, where it's located, and species. So we'll be caught all the data we need to know about each tree, and then we'll keep moving right down the street. And by the time we're in, we'll know how many Norway maples we have versus how many lindens versus how many pinnokes. So we'll know for the first time ever a real accurate resource of what we're taking care of. And why is it important for the city to have this infrastructure? Well, it's really one of our top things that we need, because right now we respond to various citizen requests for tree maintenance. And as we drive around, we also locate what type of tree we have and what kind of work it needs. But this will give us a first snapshot of the whole picture and how many trees we're actually taking care of. And instead of doing reactive maintenance, we'll try to do more program maintenance. We'll come into North Street where we are now and we'll know how many linden trees we're taking care of. And if we have invasive species problems in the future, like the temporal ash borer, we'll know how many ash trees we have and we're going to go look for that. So it's going to be a really important tool for us to manage and take care of a city's resource of trees. And this information will be available to the public online, is that right? It will be. In fact, the map that we've generated so far in the last week, we have probably five or six hundred records on there that's online on the city's map. It's on the city's website where it shows all our maps and it will be on the tree inventory. I'm just trying to remember the offhand, the website, but it's on the city's website. You can click on and see the tree out front. Eventually once we get fully, you know, we've gone through the whole program, you could actually click the tree in front of your house and know what kind of tree it is. So it's going to be really helpful for us as a tool to manage the amount of trees we have in the city. This is the first tree survey of the city in many, many years, is that right? Yeah, we had an early tree inventory computerized in the late 80s. It was on one of those little UTS screens. It was a little green screen like you used to have at the banks. It didn't tell us a lot. It was almost more accurate to get in my truck and go drive around and look and see what kind of tree it was. But the new technology using, you know, spatial information systems, satellite imagery, aerial photographs, mixing this all together is really a super way to do this. And there was a tree survey in 1854 and that had 3,300 trees and you're already up to 7,500. So do we have more trees or more city? We have more city. The early survey counted just the Peninsula of Portland, which ended about we're gearing Oaks in backhoe is when in 1898 when gearing got added to the city, it definitely increased the size of Portland. So the early inventory was just a peninsula. And you're sort of charged with keeping the trees healthy, but what can the public do to keep their own trees healthy? You know, just by being involved in the process, people walk by the tree in front of the house or down the street and they do observations of what kind of condition it is. And people can always email us a call about that tree if it needs further work or if they want a tree planted. You know, looking back to 1854 from then to the 148 years, people really care for trees in Portland. I think that's why it's been long called the Forest City. And I think having the public involved is really one of the ideal ways to manage our forests. So we're going to make huge inroads by just getting a better handle on what we have for a resource.