On September 2, the Ukrainian Ecological Club Green Wave took part in an inventory of old-growth trees in Irpin.
Together with residents, we collected information about 18 trees – 16 oaks and 2 pines.
All of these trees grow on the territory of the Вody of self-organization “BTR”. Fortunately, there are many more old-growth trees there, so the residents of the neighborhood committee headed by Anastasia Mikhailenko promised to count the rest of the trees on their own. We are sure that they will do it, because Anastasia Mykhailenko is one of the best graduates of the All-Ukrainian Academy i-Tree 4UA, which was held by the Ukrainian Ecological Club “Green Wave”.
We started the inventory with a little training – we told the participants what to measure and how to measure it, taught them how to use a height meter and how to make a description of the trees for the Register. Then we assigned roles: who records the data, who takes measurements with a tape measure, who determines the geolocation point, who takes photos of the tree – and started working
We determined the type of tree, tree girth, percentage of crown dieback, total height, height of a living tree, base height, crown width E-W, crown width SE-S, percentage of missing crown, amount of light reaching the crown, tree address, tree geolocation, and tree condition.
Next, all the data will be entered into the i-Tree eco application to calculate the number of ecosystem services that trees provide us – carbon storage, improved air quality, regulation of rainwater runoff, etc.
The next step is to create, together with the City Improvement Department of the Irpin City Council, a Register of Old Growth Trees of the Irpin Community, where data on trees and their locations will be entered.
We are pleased and appreciate that not only activists, but also a representative of the Municipal Enterprise “City Improvement Department” of the Irpin City Council, deputies, and our friends from the Eco Bucha environmental initiative joined the work.
And the Ukrainian Ecological Club “Green Wave” is always ready to support and teach!