Dallas City Council approves contract to count city's trees, despite concerns over $6M price tag
Dallas City Council approved spending more than $6 million on a contract to complete an inventory of trees on city property, but only after a lengthy debate.
The hefty price tag for counting the estimated 1.3 million trees was called into question by some members of city council.
"In an environment of limited resources, I just have to say it is a little bit shocking that we would be willing to spend over $6 million for a tree inventory," said Councilwoman Cara Mendelsohn. "This just seems like obscene amount of money."
The amount is not too much for environmentalists who worry about an invasive pest.
John Jenkins, the director of the city's parks department, said when the Emerald Ash Borer was discovered in the city with no inventory, it was harder to protect city trees.
Dallas taking steps to stop destructive beetle from attacking ash trees
More than 1,100 ash trees were tagged in Dallas County last year.
"If we had this comprehensive tree inventory it would have been much easier to deploy resources," said Jenkins.
When asked if the city was in imminent danger if they did not adopt the policy right away, urban biologists argued it has to start at some point.
The city's forest master plan and climate action plan, passed by the city council, both call for a tree inventory.
"We will continue to look for other funding sources, but this is a start," said Interim City Manager Kim Tolbert.
Councilwoman Carolyn King Arnold was concerned about the lack of detail about who would receive the hefty contract for the counting.
"It may be an 8-person team, and it is the type of technology they are using to do the inventory and condition assessment and their experience," said James.
"I cannot support this based on my marching orders," said Arnold.
Councilwoman Jaynie Schultz urged her colleagues to move forward with the tree count.
"Maybe it is because trees don't have voices and don't vote or whatever, but I don't even understand how you could question that we wouldn't want to know one of the most valuable assets of our city?" said Schultz.
Mendelsohn compared the count to the annual census of homeless people, which is done with a combination of professionals and volunteers.
"If this is important, you could probably engage volunteers all across the city to help you, an AI app can tell you what kind of tree it is," she suggested.
Councilwoman Paula Blackmon pushed back on that idea.
"If you're going to create a plan, good data sets you on trajectory for success or failure," she said. "You can't rely on volunteers to do it."
Mayor Eric Johnson voted yes, but said he knew the vote might come back to haunt him as others look for funding.
The final vote was 12-3 in favor of the inventory.
Members urged staff to find grants to fund the initiative that is now slated to use $3.8 million from the city's general fund and $2.5 million from the stormwater drainage fund.