New London Trees aims to help the City of New London maintain a detailed inventory of our municipal trees—that is, the trees along streets, in parks, and on school grounds.
Click here to access the interactive New London Trees map.
Click here to access the city of New London’s Shade Tree Commission: Arboricultural Standards & Specifications.
In 1993, the city and Connecticut College partnered together to undertake a detailed inventory and found 2,935 municipal trees in New London. This number was thankfully cited in the 2007 Plan of Conservation and Development (§ 5.24-5.25), but the inventory itself has somehow since gone missing.
In 2018, another collaborative grant-funded inventory was conducted by the Connecticut College Arboretum and the City of New London. It found only 1,887 municipal trees—a loss of nearly a third of our municipal tree population in just 25 years. Note this inventory counted the cultivated trees, not including wooded areas such as Riverside Park and Bates Woods Park.
In early 2020, New London Trees and the City of New London created a Memorandum of Understanding wherein:
— The City of New London retains ownership of the equipment and database of the inventory of municipal trees
— New London Trees will maintain, update and expand the inventory
For more information about how to help maintain the Municipal Tree Inventory, please contact NewLondonTrees@gmail.com