Urban Tree Canopy Maps

The last Friday of April in the United States marks the celebration each year of Arbor Day.  A day usually marked in cities by planting trees, the first U.S. Arbor Day, April 10, 1872 resulted in the planting of an estimated one million trees.  

In honor of this year’s Arbor Day, National Geographic created maps taking a look at tree coverage in nine of the largest cities in the U.S. in a feature entitled, “Nine Cities That Love Their Trees”.  

The feature looks at each cities and calculated the percentage of urban tree canopy.  On the list, Pittsburgh ranked the highest with a tree cover of 42%.  Many of the surrounding hillsides, once denuded of trees due to mining, logging, and development, have been reclaimed by forests.  The city also has four large city parks that adds to the extensive but patchy tree coverage across the city.  Washington, D.C. ranked second on the list with 36% tree cover.  Other cities covered are: New York, Philadelphia (see the article Every Tree Counts for information about Philadelphia’s PhillyTreeMap program), Austin, Detroit, Baltimore, Portland, and Tampa.  The footer lists the source locations for each of the datasets used.

Visit: Nine Cities That Love Their Trees – National Geographic

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