A team of a Certified Arborists, under the direction of the US Forest Service, has just completed a survey of all of the street trees that survived the tornado in Springfield.  Trees, growing along over 71 miles of roadways, were inspected for safety, viatality and liklihood of surviving the stresses of the storm.

The “Urban Forest Strike Team” used state of the art mapping technolgies and data collection techniques to track the overall condtion, type and size of the trees.  This information will be used by the City of Springfield Forestry unit and FEMA to make final determinations as to the remaining workload for crews who are working on the public street trees in the city.

Over the next two weeks, Forest Service Strike Team members will complete an analysis of the streets within the tornado zone and make recommendations to City of Springfield officials, related to selecting appropriate tree species, growth characteristics, tollerance for growing in urban condtions and design consdierations.  For more information, contact John Parry, US Forest Service at jparry@fs.fed.us