Politics & Government
City Of Louisville: Mayor Fischer, TreesLouisville Release Updated Urban Tree Canopy Assessment
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February 17, 2022
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Mayor Fischer today joined Cindi Sullivan of TreesLouisville, Councilwoman Cindi Fowler, and other community leaders at Medora Elementary School to announce the findings of the most recent Urban Tree Canopy Assessment for Louisville. The new study, commissioned by the nonprofit group TreesLouisville, shows Louisville experienced tree canopy gain while also combating canopy loss.
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“Creating a more sustainable Louisville has been a big part of my administration’s focus since I took office,” said the Mayor. “In 2011, Louisville was struggling with a growing urban heat island. That’s why my team and I created our Sustain Louisville plan in 2013, which set goals for sustainability across our city. Now, we are moving in the right direction to meet our goal of 45% tree canopy.”
TreesLouisville commissioned the University of Vermont's Spatial Analysis Lab to do a follow-up study comparing data from a 2012 assessment to the 2019 data. The results showed a 1% net increase of canopy, outpacing the annual canopy loss. It also highlighted a street canopy increase of 2% and considerable growth of trees planted a decade ago.
“This is great news,” said Cindi Sullivan, Executive Director of TreesLouisville. “It means that the collective efforts of our tree planting partners are working. The combined efforts of Metro Parks and Recreation’s divisions of Parks Forestry, Landscape, and Community Forestry, nonprofit organizations and additional government entities like TreesLouisville, Olmsted Parks Conservancy, 21st Century Parks, Louisville Grows, and the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet are improving our overall tree canopy.”
The assessment includes recommendations to continue tree canopy growth, including preserving the existing tree canopy and planting new trees in areas where the canopy is low or has experienced loss, as well as having trees with a broad age and species distribution and educating the community about the value and services trees provide for Louisville to stay green for years to come.
“As chair of the Parks and Sustainability Committee, it is very important to me that we as a city work to protect our tree canopy, as well as replace trees lost from development, disease and natural disaster,” said Councilwoman Fowler, D-14. “The new Tree Canopy Assessment will be instrumental in guiding that work, especially in areas where the heat island effect is detrimental to quality of life of our citizens.”
The initial Louisville Metro Urban Tree Canopy Assessment released in 2015 predicted a steep decline in Louisville Metro’s overall tree canopy. That study documented a loss equivalent of 820 acres of tree canopy annually over the study period between 2004 and 2012.
The assessment was developed in partnership with the USDA Forest Service. Source data for the mapping came from the Louisville/Jefferson County Information Consortium (LOJIC) and USDA. Additional support for data analytics came from a Catalyst Award from the Gund Institute for Environment at the University of Vermont.
To read the full assessment, visit https://treeslouisville.org/louisville-releases-new-urban-tree-canopy-a…
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About Louisville Metro Office of Advanced Planning and Sustainability: Mayor Fischer has focused on sustainability since the start of his term, commissioning the city’s first-ever sustainability plan, Sustain Louisville, as a framework to shape progress toward the city’s climate change goals and later melding those goals into the city’s long-range planning. In 2020, Metro Council passed an ordinance setting goals of 100% renewable electricity for Metro operations by 2030, 100% clean energy for Metro operations by 2035, and 100% clean energy community-wide by 2040. In 2021 alone, Louisville Metro reduced its energy consumption by 15%, saving over $500,000 and avoiding 2,200 tons of CO2 equivalent emissions. Louisville recently received LEED Silver certification for its sustainability work and has an A List ranking with the global environmental nonprofit CDP.
About TreesLouisville: TreesLouisville’s vision is a more livable and healthy community for Louisville’s current and future generations through a robust tree canopy. Our mission is to raise public awareness of the value of the community forest and Louisville’s tree canopy deficit and to fund tree planting in areas of the greatest need.
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This press release was produced by the City of Louisville. The views expressed here are the author’s own.