Charlotte’s losing its green canopy, despite efforts to save trees

A new study finds over three football fields worth of trees were lost per day between the end of the Great Recession and 2018. According to Dr. Shoemaker, concerted action is needed now to meet Charlotte’s “50% by 2050” resolution.

Anecdotally, we have all seen a lot of tree loss since the big development reboot starting in 2013. Today, we begin to put some numbers on that loss in the City of Charlotte. Along with Ely Portillo, I just released an article documenting the details of a study from the University of Vermont that shows the City of Charlotte has lost almost four football fields of a canopy a day since 2012, despite SWIM buffers, a treesave ordinance, and good growing conditions. https://ui.uncc.edu/story/charlotte-tree-canopy-loss