Frankfort.KY.gov - Frankfort's Street Trees/Inventory

Frankfort's Street Trees/Inventory

Information from "An Urban Forestry Management Report" by Athenic Systems, Lexington, Kentucky

Map Orientation for Frankfort’s Urban Forest.

Urban forestry trees

Recommendations from "An Urban Forestry Management Report"

Increase the forest cover in Frankfort from the present 20% to 40% over the next 20 years.
Plant more street trees. Increase the number of street trees from 2887 to approximately 15,000.
Maintain the current diversity of Frankfort’s urban forest, and emphasize the use of native species for street tree planting.
Decrease high-density species by interspersing other species. Reduce the density of Acer species in certain neighborhoods by encouraging the planting of other tree species.
Develop a list of recommended species for street tree planting. Stop further planting of some non-native species including callery pear, and reduce the use of pin oak.
Reduce, in an orderly fashion, the concentration of defective large street trees in certain neighborhoods; replace such trees with smaller species.
Replace, in an orderly fashion, trees where the planting lawn is too narrow. If the tree diameter is more than half the width of the planting lawn, trees should be replaced with smaller species.
Continue monitoring of tree condition, updating the inventory. Maintain or remove trees in an orderly fashion using the data from inventory. Develop a volunteer effort to maintain street tree records.
Develop a volunteer effort to control the invasion of weedy species in forest areas of the City to allow native species to flourish.
Manage deer populations on city property at levels that allow regeneration and stability in forest environments. Discourage feeding deer on city property.

Inventory: Street Tree Population and Condition

Overall Assessment

The street tree population of Frankfort is small relative to the available planting space. Overall, while street trees in the city have a number of defects and problems, we judge the condition of the street trees to be good. Species diversity is excellent overall, and there are relatively few invasive or nuisance species. Most street trees in the City are native to the Frankfort area. Some neighborhoods have excessive concentration of tree species and low diversity. The diameter distribution indicates that the street tree population is relatively young and vigorous. Some neighborhoods have an excess number of overly large trees.

The street tree population, 2887 trees, is small for a city the size of Frankfort. Our analysis (see Planting Sites, below) indicates that an additional 13,165 trees could be planted in existing planting sites within the City. In forestry terms, we can say that the urban forest of Frankfort is understocked, and provides substantial opportunities for planting and for increasing canopy cover within the City.

Species Diversity

Species diversity, the total number of species of street trees in the city, is high. There are 86 species of street trees in the City of Frankfort (listed in Appendix 1). Although diversity is high, the city is dominated by a small number of species: eleven species represent 66% of all the street trees in the City (Table 6a). Of these 11 species, all but one, callery pear, Pyrus calleryana, is native to the Frankfort region.

This table illustrates the number of individual trees of the top 11 street tree species in Frankfort.

Number	Botanical Name	Common Name	Nativity
318	Acer saccharum	sugar maple	Native
317	Celtis occidentalis	Hackberry	Native
248	Acer saccharinum	silver maple	Native
188	Quercus palustris	Pin oak	Native
141	Pinus strobus	eastern white pine	Native
139	Fraxinus pennsylvanica	green ash	Native
132	Robinia pseudoacacia	black locust	Appalachian, naturalized
121	Pyrus calleryana	callery pear	Asian, naturalized
99	Acer rubrum	Red maple	Native
96	Ulmus rubra	slippery elm	Native
92	Juniperus virginiana	eastern redcedar	Native

The table below lists all the street tree species identified in Frankfort, including their botanical and common names. The third column lists the nativity of the species, whether native to central Kentucky or elsewhere.

Number	Botanical Name	Common Name	Nativity
72	Acer negundo	Boxelder	Native
5	Acer palmatum	Japanese maple	Asia
9	Acer platanoides	Norway maple	Europe, naturalized
99	Acer rubrum	Red maple	Native
248	Acer saccharinum	silver maple	Native
318	Acer saccharum	sugar maple	Native
3	Aesculus glabra	Ohio buckeye	Native
1	Albizia julibrissin	Silktree	Asia, naturalized
1	Betula nigra	river birch	Native
1	Betula papyrifera	paper birch	Northern US
13	Carya cordiformis	bitternut hickory	Native
1	Carya laciniosa	shellbark hickory	Native
5	Carya ovata	shagbark hickory	Native
2	Carya tomentosa	mockernut hickory	Native
3	Castanea mollissima	Chinese chestnut	Asia, naturalized
36	Catalpa speciosa	northern catalpa	Central US, Naturalized
1	Celtis laevigata	Sugarberry	Native
317	Celtis occidentalis	Hackberry	Native
18	Cercis canadensis	eastern redbud	Native
46	Cornus florida	flowering dogwood	Native
2	Cornus sp.	Dogwood
1	Cotinus coggygria	smoke tree	European
8	Crataegus sp.	Hawthorn
2	Elaeagnus umbellata		Asia, naturalized
1	Fagus grandifolia	American beech	Native
4	Fagus sylvatica	European beech
75	Fraxinus americana	white ash	Native
139	Fraxinus pennsylvanica	green ash	Native
9	Ginkgo biloba	Ginkgo	Asia, naturalized
24	Gleditsia triacanthos	Honeylocust	Native
11	Gymnocladus dioicus	Kentucky coffeetree	Native
2	Hibiscus syriacus	rose-of-Sharon	Asia, naturalized
9	Ilex opaca	American holly	Native
1	Ilex sp.
56	Juglans nigra	black walnut	Native
92	Juniperus virginiana	eastern redcedar	Native
27	Liquidambar styraciflua	Sweetgum	Native

22	Liriodendron tulipifera	yellow-poplar	Native
1	Lonicera sp.	Honeysuckle	Asia, Europe, naturalized
27	Maclura pomifera	Osage-orange	Central US, Naturalized
4	Magnolia grandiflora	southern magnolia	Southern US
5	Magnolia sp.
30	Malus sp.	Crabapple
28	Morus alba	white mulberry	Asia, naturalized
12	Morus rubra	Red mulberry	Native
1	Nyssa sylvatica	Blackgum	Native
1	Ostrya virginiana	eastern hophornbeam	Native
4	Oxydendrum arboreum	Sourwood	Native
8	Paulownia tomentosa	royal paulownia	Asia, naturalized
19	Picea abies	Norway spruce	European, naturalized
19	Picea pungens	blue spruce	western US
5	Picea rubens	Red spruce	Northern US
6	Pinus echinata	shortleaf pine	Eastern Kentucky
9	Pinus nigra	Austrian pine	Europe
141	Pinus strobus	eastern white pine	Native
1	Pinus sylvestris	scotch pine	Europe, naturalized

6	Pinus virginiana	Virginia pine	Native
22	Platanus occidentalis	American sycamore	Native
5	Populus deltoides	eastern cottonwood	Native
2	Prunus americana	American plum	Native
60	Prunus serotina	black cherry	Native
6	Prunus serrulata	Japanese flowering cherry	Asia
8	Prunus sp.	Cherry
5	Prunus subhirtella	weeping Higan cherry	Asia
5	Pseudotsuga menziesii	Douglas-fir	western US
121	Pyrus calleryana	callery pear	Asian, naturalized
7	Quercus alba	white oak	Native
188	Quercus palustris	Pin oak	Native
1	Quercus prinus	chestnut oak	Native
32	Quercus rubra	northern red oak	Native
10	Quercus sp.	Oak
3	Quercus velutina	black oak	Native
2	Rhododendron sp.
132	Robinia pseudoacacia	black locust	Native
1	Salix matsudana	Hankow willow	Asia
10	Syringa vulgaris	common lilac	Eurasia, naturalized
1	Taxodium distichum	common baldcypress	Native
1	Thuja occidentalis	northern white-cedar	Northern US
15	Tilia americana	American basswood	Native
28	Tilia cordata	littleleaf linden	European
9	Tilia x vulgaris	European linden	Europe
11	Tsuga canadensis	eastern hemlock	Eastern Kentucky
72	Ulmus americana	American elm	Native
4	Ulmus pumila	Siberian elm	Asia, naturalized
96	Ulmus rubra	slippery elm	Native
5	Viburnum rufidulum	rusty blackhaw	Native
4	Zelkova serrata	Japanese zelkova	Asia, naturalized

Last Updated ( Tuesday, 29 January 2008 )

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