Office of Sustainability & Resilience 2025 Annual Progress Report

RECOMMENDATION 6 Establish a policy to achieve no net loss of the tree canopy throughout the City, for improved air quality, reduced urban heat island effect, and ongoing carbon sequestration.

STRATEGY 6.3 Focus planting efforts in vulnerable communities, which have limited or no tree canopy.

STATUS: Ongoing

The portion of the grant funding dedicated to purchasing trees was rescinded by the federal government. Accordingly, OSR is pursuing other funding for trees. In August, OSR received a $25,000 grant from the Duke Energy Foundation, $15,000 of which will purchase trees. In September, OSR received a $20,000 grant from the National Environmental Education Foundation to purchase trees and conduct educational programming related to trees. OSR coordinated three tree planting events in 2025, which added 52 trees of native species to areas identified by the equity prioritization tool. The department will organize additional plantings in 2026.

STRATEGY 6.1 Collaborate with Greensboro Beautiful, Sierra Club, the City

Planning Department, City Arborist, the City Housing & Neighborhood Development, the NeighborWoods Program, and other stakeholders to develop a 20-year strategy to maintain the tree canopy.

STATUS: In Progress

STRATEGY 6.2 Conduct a baseline tree canopy audit, followed by an update every five years. The CSC has relaunched its Tree Canopy Taskforce to facilitate collaboration on maintaining Greensboro's tree canopy. OSR held two community meetings in 2025 to share the data about the Tree Canopy Assessment, to begin the public conversation. The Keeping the Green in Greensboro: Tree Canopy and Equity Prioritization Project completed an updated study, which found that 44% of the City’s land area is covered by tree canopy. The project also developed a GIS-based equity prioritization tool to guide the selection of future tree-planting locations in Greensboro’s underserved areas. In addition, the resulting analysis, reports, dashboards, and story maps were curated into an ArcGIS hub site (https:// canopy.greensboro-nc.gov/). Launched in November, the hub boasts features that demonstrate: • the many benefits of trees • how to identify, plant, and map trees • the impacts of tree canopy on Greensboro’s history and neighborhoods • how the city’s canopy has changed since 1984 STATUS: Complete

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