Description: <DIV STYLE="text-align:Left;font-size:12pt"><DIV><P><SPAN>Diamond Head used the forest structure polygons as the starting point for the analysis. Any shrub, pole sapling, or young forest short polygons that were deciduous dominated were identified as under-forested. This layer also captured forest polygons with noxious weed infestations of concern - English ivy (Hedera helix) and clematis (Clematis spp.) were chosen as the noxious weed species of concern. </SPAN></P></DIV></DIV>
Copyright Text: City of Bellingham, Diamond Head Consulting
Description: <DIV STYLE="text-align:Left;font-size:12pt"><DIV><P><SPAN>Diamond Head used Bellingham's 2013 vegetation model to identify grass and non-vegetated areas that my have the potential to support tree planting in the future. Roads, parks facilities (e.g. sports fields, active use areas, etc.), impervious surfaces, buildings, and the 2018 canopy layer were erased from the layer to update it to 2018 conditions and remove areas that would not have potential to support tree planting. The grass and non-vegetated areas were then grouped by ownership and management class. Finally, Diamond Head generated course estimates of the number of trees that could potentially occupy these spaces if planted. Estimates for number of potential trees were calculated by management unit and tree soil area (assuming 24 inch depth) based on the Bellingham's City Center Street Design Standards which recommend soil areas for: 1. Large trees (50 ft mature canopy) recommend soil area of 750 sq ft; 2. Medium/large trees (40 ft mature canopy) recommend soil area of 600 sq ft; 3. Medium trees (35 ft mature canopy) recommend soil area of 500 sq ft; 4. Small trees (20 ft mature canopy) recommend soil area of 300 sq ft. The number of trees that could potentially be planted based on these recommended soil areas was calculated from largest to smallest meaning that all sites larger than 750 ft2 were assumed to be large trees only, then sites between 600 ft2 and 749 ft2 were medium/large trees only and so on until only small tree sites remained. Polygons smaller than 300 ft2 were not considered plantable. This analysis provides an estimate of the relative capacity of different land uses to support tree planting and potential canopy gain. While these areas provide a coarse relative estimate of the potentially available planting areas in the City, other considerations including site constraints and usage conflicts and future land use would need to be considered to refine these areas into actionable planting opportunities.</SPAN></P></DIV></DIV>
Copyright Text: City of Bellingham, Diamond Head Consulting