Committee plans September RFP for public canopy inventory; members debate adding private inventory and methods

Staff told the committee the public tree inventory procurement will be posted in September with a target of roughly one year to complete the work. "So it starts in September. So in September, we'll go up for, for bid to do RFP," City Arborist Chris Delk said; he added that staff will ask for a high-quality product and review incoming proposals with committee input.

Members debated whether to include private-property trees in the same procurement or to separate public and private inventories; options discussed included using aerial LiDAR, Street View imaging with citizen science ground-truthing, or a combined approach to capture canopy coverage citywide. The committee agreed staff should solicit vendor capabilities and provide cost estimates back to the committee within a month. "If you want a full canopy, I mean, as they can do it, they can do all kinds of great things," Delk said. Committee members emphasized clarifying scope (public vs. private), consent issues, and whether the vendor could provide time-series snapshots to measure canopy change.