Virginia Commonwealth University
IN-26: Innovation C

The Urban Forestry Initiative at VCU is a community-based research project designed to meet the community identified need of increasing urban tree canopy cover and the university identified need of producing carbon offsets in order to achieve the university's climate action goals. Phase one of the Urban Forestry Initiative includes a service learning course in which students are conducting a full inventory of existing street trees in a neighborhood adjacent to the VCU campus. Data collected in the street tree inventory will be used to calculate the baseline ecosystem services for trees in the neighborhood including carbon sequestration, air purification, stormwater management, and urban heat island mitigation. Vacant tree wells are also being identified in phase one. Phase two includes planting new trees in vacant tree wells as identified in phase one. Carbon sequestered by new trees planted will be counted as carbon offsets for VCU. New trees planted during phase two will be maintained in perpetuity via a partnership between VCU, the neighborhood association, and a local tree maintenance non-profit. This project provides measurable outcomes in the increased ecosystem services newly planted street trees provide for the neighborhood, carbon credits produced for VCU, and service hours provided by students and volunteers.