When Data Meets the Urban Forest: Rethinking Tree Management in U.S. Cities

At the 100th annual New Jersey Shade Tree Federation Conference in Atlantic City, greehill, together with its U.S. partner Davey Resource Group, led a sold-out Learning and Libations session that revealed a clear trend in American urban forestry: cities are ready to manage trees as data-driven infrastructure. 

The workshop, initially planned for 30 attendees, quickly filled beyond capacity as arborists, city foresters, and municipal managers gathered to explore what’s next for urban tree management. The energy in the room reflected more than curiosity, it signaled a shift in mindset. Across the U.S., local governments are beginning to see tree data not as static recordkeeping, but as a strategic asset for climate resilience, budgeting, and long-term planning. 

From Spreadsheets to Living Systems 

For decades, most urban tree inventories have existed as spreadsheets or GIS files, valuable, but frozen in time. As climate and urbanization pressures intensify, cities need living systems that update, analyze, and predict.  greehill demonstrated how LiDAR scanning and AI-driven analytics can transform this process. Instead of single data points, cities gain a dynamic, georeferenced understanding of every tree: a 3-dimensional point cloud that captures its structure, analyzes metrics related to health and vitality, and eco-benefit performance.This level of detail allows managers to transform programs from proactive to reactive, integrating green assets into the same operational frameworks that govern utilities, transport, and public works.  

Participants were especially interested in how this data can connect directly to asset management systems and sustainability metrics. One city forester captured the mood well: “It’s the first time I’ve seen tree data treated with the same rigor as other city infrastructure.”

Collaboration That Turns Innovation into Impact 

Technology alone doesn’t transform cities, but collaboration does. The partnership between greehill and Davey Resource Group shows how innovation becomes actionable when data expertise meets field experience. 

This approach anchors high-resolution analysis in practical urban forestry operations.  The workshop showed how cities can integrate new data flows into their existing processes, a crucial bridge between innovation and daily municipal reality. 

Making the Value of Trees Visible 

Urban forests deliver measurable economic and ecological benefits: lower temperatures, cleaner air, stormwater management, carbon capture, and public well-being. Yet without robust data, those benefits remain largely invisible in policy and budgeting. 

Smart inventories make the value of trees quantifiable. They help cities communicate their impact, justify investment, and plan growth with the same strategic clarity applied to roads or power grids. For densely populated regions like New Jersey, this capability marks a decisive step from maintenance-based management to infrastructure-based investment. 

A Shift Toward Data-Driven Resilience 

The full rooms, open discussions, and follow-up interest from the NJ Shade Tree Federation Conference point to a clear transition: data is becoming central to the way urban forests are managed. 

greehill is at the forefront of this change. By providing precise, scalable insights into green infrastructure, our Smart Tree Inventories support cities to move from observation into measurable action. When cities understand their trees in empirical terms, they unlock a new layer of control, one where natural assets are managed with the same precision as infrastructure. 

That’s where the future of urban resilience begins when data meets the forest.