Who is that person in the yellow vest looking at my street trees?  If you live or work in Palo Alto, it's probably one of the urban forestry specialists from Davey Resource Group conducting a Street Tree Inventory, as part of a Cal Fire urban forestry grant to the City of Palo Alto.  

Martin Jones, Municipal Inventory Project Manager for Davey's Western Region, is thrilled to be leading the team in Palo Alto. Jones has worked on city inventories in Sacramento, San Mateo, Roseville, San Jose, and Redwood City. "I really enjoy getting out to collect all of the information," says Jones, "because each tree and each city offers something new." 

Martin says the City of Palo Alto "has one of the widest variety of tree species he's ever seen." Beyond variety, Jones was astonished by the number of trees.  There are more than 36,000 street trees in Palo Alto, and each tree will get three or four minutes of inspection from a Davey inventory specialist. The inventory will map the exact location of each tree, identify the species, measure the size, assess the health, and make tree-care recommendations. This data will be recorded on hand held tablet computers, and will then be gathered as a resource for the City.

Palo Alto's Managing Arborist Eric Krebs is enthusiastic about the project. "This inventory will give us a snapshot of the current condition of our urban forest, and will allow us to manage our canopy more effectively." Krebs is also encouraged by the other impacts of the project. "We hope this inventory will help us see the benefits and value of Palo Alto's urban forest, and the importance of having a tree maintenance program."