Growing Our Urban Forest

City neighborhoods with the least tree canopy will be inventoried this winter and next spring to implement Tree Pittsburgh's master plan for our urban forest.  One of the plan's top priorities is to reach out to those communities who are lacking in greenery.  The city's Shade Tree Commission recently granted Tree Pittsburgh $10,000 to begin a multi-phase project starting with 2,000 trees in the tree-poor neighborhoods.

Part of the Shade Tree Commissions' mandate is an accurate tree inventory.  In 2005, Davey Resource Group of Ohio did an inventory of the city's street trees and found we had 30,538 shade trees on the streets at that time.  The lowest number of trees are in Chateau, the North Shore and Downtown, all of which have less than 10% shaded area.  The Strip District, Uptown and Southside Flats are tied with 12%.  Deutschtown/East Allegheny has 14%, Lower Lawrenceville has 15%, Manchester 17% and South Homewood 18%.

The Shade Tree Commission has said they believe they will be able to get to the 10 lowest canopy neighborhoods with the first grant.


Metro Pittsburgh Real Estate
Pittsburgh Neighborhood Map
Shade Tree Commission
Tree Pittsburgh