Urban Forestry Management
What is an Urban Forest?
An urban forest is system of trees, and other vegetation within in our community, including street trees, trees within residential yards and commercial spaces, vegetation within public parks, along our thruways, public right of ways and along our water ways. Cheektowaga’s urban forest provides environmental, economic and social benefits to its residents and all that work, live and play in our community.
What is the Town doing to protect and manage our urban forest?
This year the Town was a successful recipient of a $50,000 grant from the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation to prepare an Urban Forest Management Plan. A 20 year long range plan which will direct policy for how the Town can protect its existing tree and other vegetative resources, identify deficiencies in existing policy for managing the urban forest, identify the benefits of sustaining the urban forest for future generations and identify what steps all stake holders must take to mange this valuable community resource. Information on the draft plan and its preparation will be shared on this page over the next 12-18 months. A component of the plan will be to educate children on the importance of sustaining our urban forest. Last November the Town and its consultant provided educational outreach to the Maryvale Intermediate School and the Cayuga Heights Elementary School. Fifth grade students from both schools participated in an educational presentation and then helped plant a London Plane Tree at each school.
Town Park – Tree Inventory
In the summer of 2014 the Town Parks Department inventoried all trees within Town Park. A total of 786 trees were inventoried, 238 of which were identified as green Ash and infested with Emerald Ash Borer. In August of 2015 the Town was forced to remove the trees as they posed a hazard to the general public. The map below shows all of the trees inventoried and the the green ash (shown in red) which were subsequently removed.
Street Tree Inventory
The Town was successful in obtaining a grant from NYSDEC to conduct an inventory of all street trees. During the summer of 2013 Geography Students were hired from the Buffalo State College to locate each tree with the Town right of way. A total of 16,302 street trees were located using GPS units. Of the trees inventoried 760 were Ash varieties.
