Resources and Tools

by Kristen E. Humphrey, MLA, Local Assistance and Training Planner

In April, the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) launched a new online tree survey, which is a mapping tool designed to help track the state’s progress in its ambitious goal of planting five million native trees by 2031.

Finalized in October 2022, The Five Million Tree Plan was developed by the Maryland Commission for the Innovation and Advancement of Carbon Markets and Sustainable Tree Plantings (Commission). The Maryland General Assembly established the Commission with the Tree Solutions Now Act of 2021.  

The initiative “builds upon the state’s existing investments in climate action, ecosystem restoration and forest management¹”, with MDE serving as the coordinating agency charged with planting and maintaining five million trees in just one decade. In this role, MDE led a multi-agency effort to design a new website and tracking tool for the initiative.

Environmental justice is a key component of the initiative, with 500,000 (10 percent of the total) trees to be planted in underserved urban communities. Tracking and mapping the locations of tree plantings is fundamental to meeting this target. 

The website includes eligible tree planting programs, tree care resources, and more information about how the Five Million Trees initiative advances various environmental and socio-economic goals. Using the tracking tool, agencies, private organizations, and individuals can register and mark the location of their plantings, and “get counted” as part of the statewide target.

Users can map plantings of up to 10 trees by marking a point on a map. Plantings of greater than ten trees can be added by drawing a polygon to show the area within which they are planted (see screenshot images, right and below).

This data will be used to measure progress toward environmental benefits, such as improved air quality and carbon sequestration, ultimately reducing greenhouse gas emissions known to contribute to climate change.  

According to MDE, the tracking tool will also help “…state and private partners target future initiative resources across Maryland.”² For example, “Researchers from the University of Maryland College Park and NASA’s Carbon Monitoring System are helping the state use this new planting data to improve Maryland’s forest carbon inventory and support progress toward the state’s ambitious climate goals.”³

As part of the multi-agency collaboration to reach the goal of five million trees by 2031, MDE is working on data and design support with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR), Maryland Department of Agriculture (MDA), Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) and the non-profit Chesapeake Bay Trust (CBT). Additionally, the Maryland Environmental Service (MES), a not-for-profit business unit of the state of Maryland, led the development of the website and tracking tool. 

For more information about the Five Million Tree Planting Initiative, please contact Ryan Mayenschein, Five Million Trees
Supervisor, Maryland Forest Service, Department of Natural Resources at , or Barka Shimelis, Lead GIS Specialist and Project Manager, Maryland Environmental Service at .

¹ MDE April 21, 2023 press release.

² Ibid.

³ Ibid.