On Saturday, June 4th, from 10-12 pm, 17 people came out to meet at the corner of East 4th Street and Greenup Street in downtown Covington, KY to learn about the trees growing in the historic Licking Riverside neighborhood of Covington. Cassandra Homan, the former Covington city forester, and Patrick Moore and I, the current city forester lead the two-hour tour through the streets of this neighborhood to discuss the importance of tree identification and species diversity while stopping and talking about 29 unique tree species found here.

Surveys were collected from those who attended the program and some of the key findings are mentioned here. 100% of those who took the survey said that they felt more confident in choosing and managing trees for their property along with 93% who felt more confident in identifying the trees they had on their property or adjacent to their property. 68% were aware of invasive tree species on their properties and of those, 70% said they planned on removing them. This is an encouraging find, according to the University of Kentucky, “invasive plants have a large impact on Kentucky, destroying native habitats and escalating business costs due to their interference with the logging, fishing, and tourism industries. A 2021 U.S. Department of Agriculture study estimated that invasive species have cost North America more than $26 billion per year since 2010” (University of Kentucky). The key in getting people to remove invasive species is helping them to identify them. So often people are unaware of the impacts of the plants in their landscape, which may or may not have been chosen by them. Educating the public and property owners in particular alerts our local communities to the impact of these plant species. Through this successful collaborative partnership with the city of Covington and Kenton County CES, we hope to continue to offer neighborhood tree tours on an annual or a bi-annual basis to reach all neighborhoods, with a particular focus on those considered to have a low socio-economic status going forward. Research indicates that, “neighborhoods with 90% or more of their residents living in poverty have 41% less tree canopy than communities with only 10% or less of the population in poverty” (Scientific American). With participation from residents of those neighborhoods where we will be walking, we believe our presence can encourage action to promote urban tree planting and care for the myriad of benefits that urban trees provide, as well as help us continue to gather data about what obstacles neighborhoods are facing to care for urban trees and what the Kenton County CES can do to help in those regards.

Sources:

http://news.ca.uky.edu/article/uk-conference-discuss-impact-invasive-plants

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/trees-are-missing-in-low-income-neighborhoods/