SAN DIEGO– On Tuesday morning, the City of San Diego gave an update to their tree inventory analysis.

The city’s transportation department leads the study to get a better understanding of the type of trees the city has. These are city property trees, not private properties.

The city has been counting each street tree since 2017.

As part of the city’s recent climate action plan, the tree inventory will help increase street canopy, or shaded areas, by identifying vacancies to plant.

Brian Widener, the city forester, said, “Not just a few handful of blocks but let’s find those locations where we can plant more trees, and plant hopefully larger shade trees.”

Chelsea Klaseus, the deputy director for the city Transportation Department, said, “Which is something that we do to make sure we have healthy and vibrant urban forest.”

The inventory takes into account 26 different attributes when analyzing each tree. By measuring the tree’s diameter, the city gets data on the species, height, it’s environmental benefits, plus the inventory studies the space around each tree.

Widener explained, “[the count is made] to really determine what the health of our street trees are like and what condition they are in, and what stage of condition they are in and what kind of tree diversity that we have in our forest.”

The city has counted 250,000 trees, or about 85% of the street trees. The city has also identified more than 500 different species.

The city’s climate action plan has a goal to plant 100,000 trees by 2035, with an emphasis on planting in underserved communities.

The city said their plan includes funding to pay for the planting and watering of the trees they plant.