Community-based assessment of street trees in the West Side of Wilmington, Delaware

• Kyle Dennis, Environmental Science, University of Delaware

• Vaishnavi Tripuraneni, Geography and Spatial Sciences, University of Delaware

Authors: Kyle Dennis, Jamila Davey, Vaishnavi Tripuraneni

Trees, one of the most recognizable and important parts of the human environment, provide many ecosystem services, such as providing shade, carbon sequestration, and beautifying areas around them. However, tree canopy is not always equitably distributed, with some neighborhoods having little to no trees. As climate continues to change with health hazards such as extreme heat intensifying, it is imperative that cities develop equitable tree plans to provide cooling for underserved communities. The city of Wilmington, Delaware has faced historic disinvestment and has no urban tree plan. This project is in partnership with Green for the Greater Good (GGG), a community organization working on urban greenery in Wilmington West Side. GGG will be proposing a tree plan for Wilmington’s West Side. Contributing to this proposal, we conducted a street tree inventory of Census Tract 22 in Wilmington including rapid health assessments for each tree. We collected data using the US Forest Service application ‘Healthy Trees, Healthy Cities’ (HTHC) and analyzed it with ArcGIS Pro. Census Tract 22’s completed inventory showed a large majority of public street trees were North of 3rd street, with very few trees found below 3rd street. However, the average tree diameters south of 3rd street was greater than those to the north. Comparing our tree data with US Census’ income data we also found that the block group with the lowest median household income in Census Tract 22 had the fewest trees. While we were unable to compare tract-level data to the entire city, due to unavailability of comprehensive tree inventory in Wilmington, we saw an unequal distribution of trees within the tract nonetheless. This project is an important step in developing an equitable tree plan for Wilmington’s West Side, and highlights the importance of on-the-ground, community-based work in assessing urban trees.