ArcNews: 4-H Clubs Get Involved in City Planning

An article in the Winter 2005/2006 Issue of ESRI's ArcNews magazine gives two examples of how planners and volunteer groups can team up for the betterment of their community.

The first half of the article describes how local 4-H volunteers are collaborating with Hillsboro, OR, planners to inventory the city's trees. For the project, which is still ongoing, volunteers will collect data - such as size, location, and type - on every tree in Hillsboro. The data will be plugged into the city's GIS database and used for a variety of purposes, such as city tree management, education, and helping to qualify Hillsboro as a Tree City (a program of the National Arbor Day Foundation).

Hillsboro city planner Doug Miller gave a presentation at APA's 2006 National Conference in San Antonio on the city's tree inventory project.

The second half of the article describes a similar project with historic Forest Park in St. Louis. 4-H volunteers helped the city's Department of Parks, Recreation, and Forestry in cataloguing the condition of park signs, which were in need of improvement. In return, the volunteers were able to learn about GIS technology.

Read the article: 4-H Clubs Inventory Trees in Hillsboro, Oregon, and Park Conditions in St. Louis, Missouri

City of Hillsboro Street Tree Inventory Project

For more information about ESRI's GIS partnership with 4-H, click here.