City Of Goshen, IN
The City of Goshen collaborated with DRG to develop Indiana’s premier forestry program to meet canopy goals and address environmental justice and equity concerns.
Setting The Course For Successful Urban Forestry Management
In collaboration with Davey Resource Group, Inc. (DRG), the City of Goshen developed Indiana’s leading forestry program. The program was based on the City forester's internal inventory, which DRG then analyzed. The result was a comprehensive urban forest management plan that provided ecological and economic benefit information, using i-Tree Streets, and presented a multi-year urban forest management program.
Subsequently, Goshen sought to capture the size of its urban tree canopy. Leveraging grants from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources and the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, the City conducted an extensive urban forest canopy assessment, revealing coverage across 2,378 acres, accounting for 22% of the city’s land. With this data, Goshen created an ambitious plan to install over 500 trees within two years, with DRG assisting in identifying optimal planting locations per a static planting plan.
Reaping The Benefits
Since 2013, Goshen has made significant strides, launching a nonprofit and establishing the urban forestry program as a new department called Environmental Resilience. Furthermore, the City set a lofty canopy goal of 45% by 2045 to address environmental justice and equity concerns.
In 2021, Goshen partnered with DRG again to update its canopy assessment and then transitioned to a dynamic planting plan. The canopy assessment results concluded a 2% loss over seven years. The City’s canopy results and planting plan can be viewed on Davey’s TreeKeeper® Canopy web-based planning tool.
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