An inventory of the trees in Carthage's parks will help officials decide where to plant and what trees have to be removed because of the danger they pose.

Carthage Parks Director Alan Bull said the Skip Kincaid, with Skip Kincaid Urban Foresters, finished his inventory of all the trees in the city's seven parks and presented the results to Bull last week.

Bull said the $16,800 survey will help the parks department decide where to plant trees in the future to maintain the city's urban forest.

Bull said the survey rates the trees on a scale of 0-12 with 12 being a tree that is an immediate hazard that must be removed immediately.

"Because he rates them, we can see from this report places where we've got a bunch of trees that may be in the 10 category and need to be removed in the next few years," Bull said. "We know then that we need to plant several trees in that area so the new trees are established when we have to cut down the existing trees."

The inventory was paid for with a $10,000 grant from the Missouri Department of Conservation's Tree Resources Improvement and Maintenance, or TRIM program, and $6,800 in city money.

Bull said Kincaid looked at 1,497 trees in Kellogg Lake Park, Central Park, Carter Park, the Fair Acres Sports Complex, Freer Park, Griggs Park and Municipal Park, including the Carthage Municipal Golf Course.

"It was a chance to collect data on the size, condition and maintenance needs of the trees in the city's parks," Bull said. "We can see which ones need to be removed because of hazards and which ones have maintenance needs, such as limbs removed, structural pruning or crown cleaning to remove dead, damaged or poor quality limbs. It allows us to see right off the bat where we've got bad trees that need to be removed."

Bull said the parks department has a tree-replacement plan separate from the inventory and $1,300 budgeted in the last fiscal year to buy trees to plant in the park.
He said this was the second grant the city has received from the Department of Conservation's TRIM Program. He said about four years ago, the city received a grant for the Kellogg Lake committee to plant trees at that park.