Saluda residents may have noticed a man in a refl ective vest and hat measuring and studying the trees along Main St. and in McCreery Park in Saluda for several days this past week.

Eric Muecke, an urban forestry specialist with the North Carolina Forest Service, together with members of Saluda’s Interim Tree Advisory Board, met to inventory and evaluate the trees on public property as part of the process the tree board is taking to pursue Tree City USA status.

Muecke estimates the tree board will inventory 500 to 600trees over three days.

Tree City USA is a program sponsored by the Arbor Day Foundation that provides the framework for community forestry management for cities and towns across the country.

In October, Saluda’s tree board will submit application paperwork to the foundation for the designation. There are more than 3,400 cities across the country with this designation, according to the foundation’s website.

“You can’t manage what you don’t measure,” said Muecke, who uses his iPad and a program called Talking2Trees to document size, health, maintenance and removal plans for trees that are on public property in the vicinity of vehicle and pedestrian traffic.

The software program, developed in Greensboro, N.C. with help from the N.C. Forest Service, enables Muecke to produce a GIS overlay of the trees’ locations onto Google Maps.

Additionally, it can store data such as photos and species information, and produce a data-base that Saluda’s Public Works Department can use to track maintenance tasks, or that the state can use to measure pollution abatement, water absorption, and carbon footprints.

Saluda is the first city in Western North Carolina to utilize this program, according to Muecke. He also said that North Carolina is one of the first states that will have this type of data in this format.

As Muecke and tree board members Don Clapp and Nancy Barnett walked around McCreery Park Tuesday, they made note of the conditions of Kwanzan Cheery trees, Dwarf Hinoki Cypresses, Florida and Kousa Dogwoods and a myriad of other trees in the city’s urban forest.

They observed crown dieback, split limbs, weak forks, trunk decay and deadwood, as well as the trees that are healthy and thriving.

Using a specially designed yardstick called a Biltmore Stick, they measured and recorded diameter and height of the trees.

Once the inventory is completed, Clapp said that the tree board will be in a better position to complete the necessary steps to obtain the Tree City USA designation.

The steps include drafting a public tree ordinance regarding the planting, maintenance and removal of trees; holding an Arbor Day celebration; demonstrating that the city spends at least two dollars per capita on the planting, maintenance and removal of trees;  and establishing a tree advisory board.

“The inventory is most important because it gives us [tree board] a lot of guidance,” said Clapp. “When we get the Tree City USA status, it will be another feather in the cap for Saluda. We’re interested in doing the right thing.”

By Claire Sachse
claire.sachse@tryondailybulletin.com