On September 2, 2022, Arboricultural Manager David Zaparanick notified us that there was both double counting as well as non-reporting of some trees permitted for removal on the 4th Qtr FY 2022 quarterly report.

In summary, 1,421 trees were included that had been reported on a previous quarterly report, but the report excluded 117 trees removed for infrastructure.

However, these errors were found in two of eight projects with over 200 trees removed that The Tree Next Door spot-checked after questioning the startling high tree removals for this most recent quarter. This means there could easily be more instances of these same errors. We know now that double-counting occurs whenever additional trees are added to a permit after the final approval has been given* and a new quarter has begun. What we don't know is how often this occurs.

Zaparanick also reported that he was taking a two month leave of absence, starting Friday, September 2 and ending November 7, 2022.

In Zaparanick's absence, we will work with other City staff to ascertain if there is any other double counting of trees in projects which have had trees added after the final approval has been given. The original article and charts below have not yet been corrected because we don't know the extent of this double-counting problem or if other omissions of infrastructure trees have occurred. Stay tuned.

*According to Section 158-101 (h) of the tree ordinance, additional trees may be added to a final approval provided there is not more than a 10% increase in either the total number or the total DBH of the trees permitted for removal or destruction.

-- Original Article -- 

Correction to first chart only: 12,136 new healthy trees were permitted for removal in FY 2022, not 13,440 as reported below.

The City of Atlanta has experienced a breathtaking 69% increase in the number of healthy trees permitted for removal between July 1, 2021 and June 30, 2022* for a total of 13,440 healthy trees removed.  This number does not include an additional 1,210 trees which were removed illegally or the 10,256 trees that were removed as dead, dying or hazardous (DDH). 

This increase in healthy tree removal began last summer and continued to dramatically increase in the first two quarters of 2022, which is typically a slower season for tree removal. This increase cannot be considered a post-Covid boom given that, with the exception of a dip in trees removed when the City was on “lockdown” (2nd Qtr 2020), tree removal has been higher each quarter than the same quarter in previous years.

There was also a corresponding 73% increase in trees cited as illegally removed, but it is impossible to tell whether this increase was due to greater illegal tree removal or better enforcement by the six field arborists the City Arborist Division now has in the field.

Interestingly, the number of trees removed as dead, dying or hazardous (DDH) grew by only 2% this past fiscal year. However, this slowdown in the number of trees removed as DDH comes after this number jumped by 21% in FY 2020 and another 10% in FY 2021. We still have 35% more trees being approved as DDH than we did three years ago.

In total, we have lost 24,906 trees this past year. Here is the detail for all quarters since the Arborist Division first began publishing quarterly reports in the fall of 2019:

* Because the Arborist Division only started publishing quarterly data in the 3rd quarter of 2019, we are unable to report data by calendar year before 2020. Prior to 3rd quarter 2019, the City tree data is only provided by fiscal year only, which means that annual trend data must be reported by fiscal year – which runs from July 1st to June 30th of the following year