News Photo by Steve Schulwitz Trees blow in the wind in front of Alpena City Hall on Friday. The city has hired a firm to conduct a tree inventory study so it has a better grasp on the city’s tree population and health.

ALPENA — The last time Alpena conducted a tree inventory study to record how many and what types of trees are in the city was in 1974.

On Tuesday, the Alpena Municipal Council voted to hire Davey Resource Group, of Novi, to conduct a tree study that includes inventorying public trees, GPS mapping of the trees, and developing an urban forest management plan. A review of some trees in local parks will also be a part of the review.

The city is paying for the inventory study with money it received from a Michigan Department of Natural Resources for the Urban and Community Forestry grant in the amount of $160,000. There was no financial match required by the city.

Council approved paying Davey up to $66,802 to complete the project and develop the action plan.

City Engineer Steve Shultz said an updated tree inventory and plan will help city officials plan for the future.

“Davey has agreed to inventory approximately 750 trees in parks,” he said. “This is a warranted expense as it will provide the city with valuable information in our parks and future parks’ planning.”

The remaining money from the grant will be used to help train employees on how to properly plant and maintain trees, as well as about $50,000 to cover the cost of trees that will be planted in the future. Shultz said the city could add up to 500 new trees in the future.

“Davey will utilize three arborists in the field with two forestry specialists leading the project and management plan development,” Shultz said.

In Alpena, Shultz said, there are some streets that have many trees on one side of the road and few on the other. He said the inventory and plan will help the city plan to even out those areas, as well as replace trees that are planted too close together and have become unhealthy as a result.

“They will look at the tree canopy and help us address the areas where the trees are planted and may be a little out of balance,” he said. “There may be places where they tell us we need to have some trees cut down because they are growing into each other and actually causing each other harm. We have a 25 foot separation policy for trees, but that distance is certainly not adequate for some of the trees we pick. You can’t pick two gigantic trees and put them 25 feet apart. So, in some of these cases, we may see some of these trees cut down and replaced.”

Mayor Cindy Johnson complimented the work Shultz and other staff did to acquire the grant and for its communication with Davey. She said knowing more about the city’s trees and having a clear plan moving forward is important, especially after the ice storm damaged or destroyed many trees in Alpena.

“It was long before the ice storm when we started this process, which probably should have started 50 years ago so we could manage the trees in the city better than we have,” Johnson said. “This is the beginning of true management and I think this is a really good idea and a great way to learn how our trees should be managed.”

Shultz said Davey will begin inventorying the trees soon and present a complete report to the council in late spring or early summer of next year.

Steve Schulwitz can be reached at 989-358-5689 or sschulwitz@TheAlpenaNews.com. Follow him on X @ss_alpenanews.com.