In 2024, the city updated it's tree inventory and tree management plan. The focus of the inventory and management plan is to address short-term and long-term maintenance needs for inventoried public trees. The Davey Resource Group completed the tree inventory of over 3,000 sites to help the city gain an understanding of the needs of our existing urban forest and recommend a maintenance schedule for tree care.
An interactive inventory of city owned trees can be found here.
The Tree Management Plan can be found here.
This inventory was made possible by the Missouri Department of Conservation.
Did you know North Kansas City has been recognized as a Tree City USA for 28 years? If you have walked the neighborhoods and parks you can see, we take our tree canopy very seriously. Several standards set forth by the Arbor Day Foundation and the National Association of State Foresters ensure that qualifying communities have a viable tree management system.
The four standards to meet for Tree City USA recognition are as follows:
1. Establishing a tree board or department. North Kansas City, per city ordinance, as a city tree board that consists of the director of public works, superintendent of buildings and grounds, and the director of parks and recreation. Their responsibility is to study, investigate, develop and administer a written plan for the care of the city’s trees.
2. Create a public tree care ordinance. Trees on public property are a public good, and caring for these trees is a vital element of the Tree City USA program. Our ordinance includes guidelines for the preservation, pruning, planting, replanting, or removal of trees in parks, along the streets and in other public areas.
3. A Community Forestry Program with an Annual Budget of at Least $2 Per Capita. City trees require investment to remain healthy and sustainable. To meet this standard each year, North Kansas City carefully budgets for the planting, care, maintenance, management and removal of city trees, and the planning efforts to make those things happen. For 2024 our per capita expenditure was $73.47.
4. An Arbor Day Observance and Proclamation. Each year the city recites an official Arbor Day proclamation. This allows the mayor and city council to demonstrate their support for the community tree program and complete the requirements for becoming a Tree City USA!
North Kansas City is proud to be a designated Tree City USA! North Kansas City has nearly 4,000 trees in its urban tree canopy. The benefits of those trees include cleaner air, reducing the heat island effect and providing shade in extreme heat, improving water quality and reducing stormwater runoff, reducing stress, fostering community interaction by increasing walkability, and improving climate resiliency! For more information about city trees, reach out to the Public Works Department.
The Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) beetle was first discovered in ash trees in North Kansas City in November 2014, when the city's arborist reported that over one hundred ash trees in North Kansas City were infested.
The city has taken a proactive approach to slow or stop the onset of the EAB to minimize the loss of ash trees. Ash trees located along street rights-of-way and in the city's parks are treated by a qualified landscape company once every three years to control the EAB.
