Toby Jacobs, Nasir Shir, Jeff Tarling Lucas Kaim at this morning press conference at Sumner Park, North Street
“Munjoy Hill people love their trees. This new technology will give us a more efficient way to address issues about trees on the Hill. This will be an efficient way to deal with those issues,” said Jeff Tarling, city arborist, at a press conference this morning at Sumner Park, North Street on the Hill.
The press conference was the official roll-out of a program that started about a week ago and is expected to run until the end of this October. The grant from the U.S. Forestry Service permitted the city to hire two interns – one with advanced computer skills and the other with a solid forestry background. The two, Lucas Kaim and Toby Jacobs are surveying trees on the Hill for their species, size, condition and location; called “attributes.” Those attributes are entered into a GIS data base by the interns working in the field. Those attributes can be read back in the Public Services computer office on Portland Street.
“When we receive inquiries from the public we will be able to identify the tree and its attributes on our office. computer. That means not getting in a truck and going to the location where the tree is located,” said Tarling. “That really saves us time and money.” This new technology will help the City in planning tree plantings for the future. The City has already started planting more English Oak, Upright Pin Oak and Armstrong Red Maples which are suitable for Portland because they require less pruning. Tarling said that the pruning of trees in high density areas like the Hill is one of its most significant priorities and requests. So far, this new initiative has uncovered 500 trees the city didn’t know existed. The team started at Fish Point on the waterfront and is working eastward through the city. It has already identified 60 different species of trees in the area.
This work could be outsourced but it costs about $4.50 a tree to do. The City wanted to do the work in-house because they can learn the techniques used to keep an uptodate data base.
Nasir Shir, a GIS Technician for the Department of Public Services for Portland oversees the technology of the program, making certain the interns are collecting all the trees and filling in all the attributes. “Cost effective technology has made our lives easier and more efficient,” Shir said.