Chicago Botanic Garden

The Chicago Botanic Garden will undertake a detailed condition survey of its tree collection, established in the late 1960s. Staff will survey 9,000 trees in the garden's main tract, confirming and correcting specimen locations on geographic information system maps; assessing specimen health, noting any specific disease, insects, or environmental causal agents or major structural defects; and creating an action plan for specimens founds to be in poor condition. The project will support the long-term health of the garden's tree collection, which serves scientists, educators, students, and visitors who use these trees for research, teaching, and recreation; it will also provide the basis for determining long-term conservation priorities and planning for the collection. Because similar conditions prevail throughout the Chicago area, survey results will contribute to the development of an adaptive planting list for the city's Chicago Trees Initiative that will be made available online for use by urban foresters and other municipalities across the region.