The National Urban Tree Deficit is the number of “average urban trees” we need in metropolitan areas to bring the tree canopy level up to American Forests conservative recommendations. The recommended level was determined after studying exiting tree cover in urban landscapes for 20 years, measuring existing tree cover using image analysis techniques, and working with local urban foresters. The recommended levels are adjusted for local climates. The core recommendations are:

• 15% for commercial areas
• 25% for urban residential
• 60% for suburban and
• 40% on average

The plains states and the dryland Western states like Colorado will have city landscapes with lower recommendation. The average tree cover for the Denver metro area was 25% on average.

Within urban areas of the 48 contiguous states using Council of Government Boundaries we estimated the area of forest cover using classified satellite imagery. The urban areas were then segmented by region to adjust for variation in natural forest cover. Computing the recommended tree cover based on regional target values we calculated the difference which was the total deficit area. Dividing the total deficit area by the area of an average urban tree we came up with 634,407,719 trees. It was all very scientific.

• Plant a tree in your yard
• Encourage your community to plant trees on public space. Measure the benefits provided by trees with CITYgreen and Regional Ecosystem Analysis
• Contribute to American Forests tree planting fund