The Tree Canopy Assessment was a 50/50 match grant from the NC Forest Service and the NC Urban Forest Council. The total assessment was $13,402.16, and Salisbury was awarded $6,701.08. The report determined that the City of Salisbury is approximately 14,721 acres with a tree canopy covering 6,625 acres (45%). Since 2014, the City has gained 1% of canopy coverage or 152 acres.
This report also went into detail pertaining to our tree canopy cover of our parks and neighborhoods. There is an average canopy cover of 44% over all of Salisbury’s Parks. 40% of the combined parks area was deemed suitable for possible planting. When looking at Salisbury’s 82 neighborhoods, 36 of them had a decrease in canopy cover, while 30 had an increase in canopy cover. The remaining neighborhoods stayed relatively stable.
The ecosystem benefits calculated from this study are:
- Air Quality;
$853,855.00 (493,499 lbs. of pollution removed annually).
- Stormwater Reduction;
$485,869.00 (54 million gallons of runoff prevented annually).
- Carbon Sequestration:
$2,125,240.00 (12,461 tons of carbon sequestered annually).
- Carbon Storage:
$42,302,210.00 (248,033 tons of carbon stored in the urban forest).
- $3,464,964 Annual Benefits
(Air Quality, Stormwater and Carbon Sequestration).
- $45,767,173 Total Benefits
(Total Annual Benefits Plus Stored Carbon).