Partners 2025: Las Vegas Takeaways

Each year, the Partners in Community Forestry Conference brings together urban foresters across the United States. For greehill and our partner Davey Resource Group, it is a key moment in the calendar because it is the one time per year when urban forestry leaders from across the country are together in one place. That concentration of experience, responsibility, and future planning makes every conversation count.

This year in Las Vegas, the theme was clear. The field is moving steadily toward smarter, repeatable, and more operational tree data. The conversations we had throughout the week were practical, detailed, and focused on how to apply data and the insights they provide to real municipal workflows.

A booth built for real exchange  

At the greehill × Davey booth, we focused on showing what smart inventories look like in practice.

Across both days, we ran platform demos continuously and walked attendees through real city use cases. Many discussions went directly into implementation questions: how to connect inventories to asset management, how to plan repeat scans, and how to use canopy and risk insights for budgeting, maintenance, and resilience planning.

The density of relevant exchange at Partners is distinct. Because most attendees manage citywide programs, the dialogue quickly reaches depth. We left the booth with a strong sense that the conversations begun here will continue in the coming months with tangible next steps.

Davey’s Future of Tree Data Presentation   

A central point of the week was Davey’s session with the City of Las Vegas:

The Future of Tree Data Starts in Vegas with Josh Behounek (Davey Resource Group) and Bradley Daseler (City of Las Vegas).

Josh spoke clearly about what Las Vegas has already built, where urban forestry data is heading, and what the next layer of smart inventory work will require. The session was attended by roughly 100 professionals and was well received. The following days confirmed that interest continued beyond the room.

Las Vegas, together with Davey, built an AI-driven smart urban tree inventory using greehill technology. The project shows what becomes possible when repeatable scanning, biomechanical insight, and objective data are integrated into daily tree management. It is a concrete example of how cities can move from static records to living systems that improve over time. 

A clear shift in LiDAR familiarity   

One of the most important observations from the week came from the floor.

In our booth conversations, roughly 40 to 50 % of visitors to our booth already knew about, or had worked with, LiDAR-based tree inventories. That share is noticeably higher than what we have seen at more local conferences this year.

Two things likely explain it. The Arbor Day Foundation’s Partners Conference attracts a managerial audience with responsibility for long-term programs and budgets. It also attracts teams actively looking for scalable approaches. When familiarity is already present at that level, the conversation shifts quickly from “what is this” to “how do we use it well.”

For us, that is a meaningful signal of readiness in the U.S. market.

A region of projects  

Our experience speaking with cities reinforced that smart inventories in the U.S. are no longer isolated pilots. Multiple cities referenced existing scans, active planning, or internal efforts to modernize their inventory systems. Las Vegas remains a visible case, but it sits within a broader national momentum toward digital-twin-informed urban forestry.

The conference also highlighted the strength of ongoing work in the region. Recently, North Las Vegas received recognition for an innovative orchard restoration at the Urban and Community Forestry Society conference. greehill scanned Kiel Ranch Park in 2025, and we are pleased to see that project being celebrated. 

What this week confirmed 

Partners 2025 felt less like a conference about future possibility and more like a checkpoint on a very real transition already underway.

Three points stood out:

1. Cities are moving toward objective, repeatable data.

   The role of inventories is changing. Cities want datasets they can rescan, compare, and use operationally over time.

   
   

2. LiDAR awareness is becoming mainstream among decision-makers.

   When a large portion of leaders already understands the method, adoption becomes a question of design and integration, not persuasion.

   
   

3. The U.S. market is ready for deeper implementation.

   The questions we heard were about scaling, governance, and long-term use.

   That is the strongest form of readiness a city can express.

What comes next 

The value of Partners is that it shows not only where the field is, but what it needs next.

In Las Vegas, we saw a sector becoming more data-literate, more system-oriented, and more focused on resilience over time. That shift is exactly what greehill exists to support. Smart inventories are increasingly becoming the foundation for managing urban forests with precision and transparency.

We are grateful for the quality of dialogue, for the leadership shown by our partner Davey, and for the growing number of U.S. cities turning tree data into long-term management practice.

The work continues now in those cities, on those streets, and in those canopies. Partners gave the clearest signal of the year that the momentum is steady, and that the field is ready to build on it.