East Cambridge Tree Planting

The map shows all completed tree plantings by the Canopy Crew program. Tree plantings began in the Spring of 2022. Since January 2023, the Canopy Crew program has been planting trees as part of a contract for the Cambridge Redevelopment Authority (CRA), focusing on East Cambridge. These plantings aim to be within a 15-minute walking radius of a new development site in Kendall Square where trees were removed (shown on the map, labeled as CRA Development Site).

Percent Canopy Coverage, Temperatures, and Open Space Priority Zones are also shown on the map. Percent Canopy cover data was collected by the city of Cambridge and shows the percent coverage in each census block. Temperature data was provided and collected by the Museum of Science. The measurements were collected on a randomly-chosen summer morning and are not an average of multiple collection periods. Open Space Priority Zones were determined by the city of Cambridge based on census and city data including demographics, health of residents, environmental justice related factors, and access to and proximity to parks. A higher total score indicates a greater need for open space resources.

Potential planting sites were identified by Kent Johnson using data from the City of Cambridge where there is 1) at least 500 square feet of unpaved surface, 2) no existing canopy cover, 3) a minimum circle radius of 10 feet, and 4) a residential exemption, which indicates that the building owner lives on the property.

Note that the attribute selection tools can only be used on affiliated layers. The temperature slider is associated with the Morning Temperatures layer, the PctTreeCanopy with the Percent Canopy Cover layer, and the GrandTotalScore with the Open Space Priority Zones layer. Hover over areas to see exact values!

Questions about this map can be directed to daisy@greencambridge.org