By Dan Buckler, DNR Urban Forest Assessment Specialist
Daniel.Buckler@wisconsin.gov or 608-445-4578
Especially in the wake of emerald ash borer, urban foresters have stressed species diversity as an important goal in the management of local trees. Now there is a new, intuitive way of tracking species diversity by simply counting how many species it takes to make up half of your community’s trees.
This metric is called the top diversity index, or TD-50 index, and was proposed in a 2022 article in Urban Forestry and Urban Greening by Natalie Love and others. The index is deceptively simple — by counting the minimum number of species it takes to comprise 50% of your trees, you have an easy benchmark to improve upon to reduce your reliance on a few species. Continue reading “A New, Intuitive Way To Measure Species Diversity”
Do you have a tree inventory but have a hard time keeping it up to date? Or are you interested in inventorying trees from scratch?
*These training opportunities are provided as an information service only and do not constitute an endorsement from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR).
The trees on school properties mirror those of the surrounding urban forest in composition but not in coverage.
Council, has updated its recommended species lists for street and park trees. You can find those four documents below and under “Tree Species Selection” on the