Tree Coverage
Tree Coverage is a measure of how much tree canopy cover there is within a geographic boundary, in this case within the boundaries of the District of Columbia.
How did we come up with the grade?
The District tree canopy extent layer was created by the US Forest Service Northern Research Station and the University of Vermont Spatial Analysis Lab by interpreting high-resolution satellite data for tree canopy, grass, and built surfaces. The resulting Geographic Information System (GIS) layers were then used in combination with property boundary, building, and other GIS layers supplied by DC Octo to perform the analysis.
The results were then compared to Urban Tree Canopy (UTC) cover in states east of the Mississippi and on the west coast (These are states where high tree cover is natural; we purposely did not compare DC with states in the Great Plains or the desert southwest as those areas do not naturally have high tree cover). These data were developed by the US Forest Service Northern Research Station.
The average UTC in these states is 34%. DC’s compares favorably at 35%; it is above the median but below the third quartile (75th percentile).
Explore other Tree Report Card Metrics: Coverage, Health, Planting, Protection, and Awareness
