Townsend’s Community Forest Part 1
 | Author:
Patrick Plantenberg, Tree Board Chair
Townsend Tree Board Chair, Townsend Rotary Club |
Townsend’s Community Forest Part 1
Note: This is the first in a series of articles from the Townsend Tree Board reporting on the status of the community forest in Townsend.
The Tree Board has conducted four tree inventories on public property in 1990, 2005, 2011, and 2020. This series of articles will summarize the changes in the community forest over 33 years.
The purpose of the inventories was to obtain a snapshot of the current shade and ornamental public tree situation and assist in the management of Townsend’s community forest resources. The major goal of the inventory is to develop a tree maintenance plan to limit the city’s liability in case a tree or branch fails and damages a person or property. The inventories and resulting assessments summarized the existing tree resources and their values, current and potential tree problems, and general recommendations for future community forestry needs. Data collected includes:
• Tree address, GPS location, and land use; • Common and scientific name including variety or cultivar if known; • year planted if known; • size including diameter at breast height, height, and width; • condition of tree and leaves; • number of trunks; • maintenance recommendations for small and large trees including routine or immediate; • maintenance tasks including stake and train young trees, crown thinning or cleaning, monitoring, treat pest or disease, and remove; • conflicts with utility lines; • sidewalk damage from tree roots; • date of last inspection or work on the tree; • identification of stumps to be removed and potential future planting site locations; and • comments of work completed on the tree to date.
The 1990 inventory included all city parks including Connor’s Field northeast of Townsend. It appears from the 1990 data, that some parks were missed as many of the parks contain mature Colorado blue spruce trees older than 30 years that were not listed in the 1990 inventory. The 2005 and 2011 inventories did not include Connor’s Field trees. Connor’s Field has about twenty trees, so the difference is insignificant.
The 1990, 2005, 2011, and 2020 inventories included all city street trees. The 2005, 2011, and 2020 inventories included all park trees as well as the Townsend School District #1 campus and Broadwater County property which includes the Courthouse, half of Veteran’s Park, Museum, Hospital, and Senior Center. These additional properties added between 100 and 200 trees to the total tree inventory base in 2005-2020. The 1990-2011 inventories were snapshots in time and the data was never updated to keep it current. The 2020 inventory uses the state of Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation TreeKeeper inventory software system and tree data has been updated regularly as changes occur. These updates are significant to keep the data on the community forest up to date.
Next week we will discuss Townsend’s landscape characteristics, and why it is important to actively manage the community forest.
Article Images
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PhotoCredit: Pat Plantenberg
Image 1 Caption: Townsend Community Forest
