January 2015 - Parks & Recreation - 59

The cherry trees at Balboa Lake are just some of the 330,000-plus trees L.A. City Parks is
responsible for maintaining.

Keeper tracks which tree species in
what locations are being tested and
will log the results over time.
Just as importantly, the inventory
quantifies the value of a forest that may
be destroyed by a fire and provides a
comparative analysis of the loss.
The software also includes an educational component.

Leon Boroditsky

disease, and in Southern California,
drought, " Karcher said. " With the
emerald ash borer marching across
the country, and polyphagus shothole borer already in the region, it
becomes incumbent upon tree managers to track what they are planting
and how those trees are performing. "
Bauernfeind estimates that L.A.
City Parks is responsible for a minimum of 337,600 trees. Of those, the
parks worked with Davey to inventory about 60,000 to date.
" Right now, we're primarily using
TreeKeeper to host our tree inventory data, " Bauernfeind says. " By the
time this goes to press, we will be
using it to manage our work order
system. From a managerial standpoint, the ability to have a permanent
record of the work that we're doing
on a tree-by-tree basis so that we can
prioritize our work is invaluable. And
the fact that it's electronic so staff can
be dispatched without the need for
paper, and that everything is being
accurately logged in real time, makes
the work that much easier. "
Using iPads, Bauernfeind's staff
can take pictures of tree damage,
planting and maintenance and instantly input the photos into TreeKeeper to supplement the other data
tracked by the software. The ability
of staff to quickly update the software in the field lets administrative
personnel work with real-time data
when planning responses to storms,
wildfires and other weather events or
managing construction and expansion projects.
Davey and L.A. City Parks are
working on a pilot project using TreeKeeper to track drought effects. The
parks are experimenting with treegrowth regulators to determine if
they can potentially ease the stress on
trees struggling with drought. Tree-

Field employees of L.A. City Parks can
instantaneously update their TreeKeeper
data to reflect storm damage, regular
maintenance and other changes to the
parks' trees.

In fall 2014, the Department of
Recreation and Parks made its existing tree inventory data available to
the public online.
" Our goal is to help educate the
public about the value, importance
and extensive nature of the park urban forest, " Bauernfeind said. " It potentially could be a huge educational
component as well for us to leverage
and educate local politicians. "
Karcher credits L.A. City Parks'
staff with embracing the software and
taking a smart, progressive approach
to managing its tree population.
" L.A. City Parks is a quiet leader
in urban forestry in California, " she
says. " L.A. City Parks manages a lot
of trees for many citizens. In many
cases we take for granted the trees in
our parks, but the L.A. Parks team
does a great job of assuring that residents and visitors alike have a healthy
urban forest when they come to enjoy the numerous parks throughout
the city of Los Angeles. "
Matt Fredmonsky is a Corporate
Communications Project Manager for The
Davey Tree Expert Company (matt.
fredmonsky@davey.com).

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