Kendra Boot is the City Forester for Fort Collins and a senior manager within the Parks Department. Her background includes rural/standard forestry and urban forestry work for local governments and tree care companies. She oversees management of the city’s public trees and related policies, permitting, and programs.

Episode Summary

City Forester Kendra Boot explains how Fort Collins manages its urban forest—about 60,000 public trees—through pruning, planting, removals, stump grinding, insect/disease management, recycling debris into free mulch, development review, and enforcement for hazardous private trees. She notes that most canopy (about 88%) is on private property and describes how the public tree inventory (“Treekeeper Fort Collins”) helps residents identify species on streets and in parks.

Kendra outlines the newly adopted Urban Forest Strategic Plan, which prioritizes planting in high-need areas and supports species diversity and resilience. Early implementation steps include added funding (partly from the Climate 2050 tax), hiring a senior urban forestry planner, updated policy work to preserve large trees, and tracking canopy changes every two years. She highlights City Park’s Level II Arboretum designation via ArbNet (Morton Arboretum), the Community Canopy program ($25 trees), Urban Forest Ambassadors (volunteer inventory, education, and small-tree pruning), and PSD fourth-grade education. The plan is available in English and Spanish.

Key Takeaways

• Fort Collins directly maintains ~60,000 public trees; most canopy (~88%) is on private property.
• Public tree data are open via Treekeeper; residents can look up species, size, and locations.
• Routine pruning aims for a five-year rotation (currently ~6.5 years) ≈ ~12,000 trees pruned annually.
• The Urban Forest Strategic Plan prioritizes planting in high- and very-high-need areas, species diversity, and equitable canopy.
• Initial implementation: added planting funds (including Climate 2050 tax), a new senior urban forestry planner, and policy work to preserve large trees.
• City Park Arboretum is recognized as a Level II Arboretum; many trees there are labeled for self-guided learning.
• Volunteer Urban Forest Ambassadors have inventoried 9,200+ trees this year and support outreach and small-tree care.
• Estimated annual benefits from the city’s trees total about $2.2M.

Notable Quotes

• “About 88% of [Fort Collins’] canopy is on private property…”
• “When you have 60,000 trees, and we have them on a pretty frequent pruning rotation, five years is our goal.”
• “City Park Arboretum now is globally recognized as a level two arboretum…”
• “The benefits that those trees provide—$2.2 million in benefits each year that our trees provide to us.”

Resources

• Forestry (programs, licensed arborists, recommended trees, mulch, Ambassadors):
  https://www.fcgov.com/forestry/
• Urban Forest Strategic Plan (English & Spanish):
  https://ourcity.fcgov.com/rooted-in-community
• Treekeeper (public tree inventory):
  https://fortcollinsco.treekeepersoftware.com/index.cfm?deviceWidth=1366
• Community Canopy / $25 Tree Sale:
  https://www.fcgov.com/forestry/treecanopy
• City Park Arboretum & Self-Guided Tree Tour:
  https://www.fcgov.com/forestry/tree-tour

Opinions expressed are the guest’s and do not represent the City of Fort Collins or its boards.