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Virginia UTC Mapper Tool (www.utcmapper.frec.vt.edu) This tool, still being developed, takes aerial UTC assessment to a new level—the landscape level. Day says, "The Mapper is an online interface with canopy assessment that allows urban foresters to do some analysis on the fly if their city has been mapped." Associate Professor and Geospatial Extension Specialist John McGee, also of the Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation, worked most intimately on the newly released Virginia Urban Tree Canopy Mapper, which has thus far been applied to 27 Virginia localities. Virginia Tech's comprehensive urban forestry undergraduate program is accredited by the Society of American Foresters. VT's urban forestry graduate program allows students to pursue Master's of Forestry, Master's of Science and doctoral degrees. www.frec.vt.edu McGee says, "The Virginia Urban Tree Canopy Mapper provides user-friendly and public access to both spatial and quantitative information associated with tree canopy. Using the Virginia Urban Tree Canopy Mapper, decision makers can visually assess the UTC in their communities as a whole, or they can 'zoom in' and evaluate UTC in user-defined areas, which may include: riparian corridors, neighborhood blocks, or neighborhood association boundaries. He continues, "While there are a handful of communities that have included UTC data within their online parcel mapping systems, as far as we are aware, Virginia is the first state to design and implement a statewide urban tree canopy mapper. We anticipate that the Virginia UTC mapper will generate renewed interest in urban tree canopy assessments by other communities and states, as this product can be leveraged in many different ways and by all levels of government." Student research assistants Steve Gaines and Dustin Mays collect- McGee continued, "Obviously online viewers and spa- ed street tree inventory data in Harrisonburg, VA in spring 2011. tial analysis tools are an efficient and powerful data Photo by Eric Wiseman delivery mechanism. However, in addition to serving as data delivery tools, these viewers promote inquiry and exploration. The public is increasingly consuming and becoming accustomed to location-based services, through both desktop and mobile devices. Stakeholders will likely expect, and demand increased access to online mappers in the future. It is inevitable that online UTC viewers and related spatially-driven UTC 'apps' will become increasingly vital components in the urban forester's toolbox." Wiseman says, "This urban forest inventory analysis and UTC canopy assessments for 27 Virginia localities gave us really high-precision canopy analysis. We have info down to the parcel level—something that's kind of unprecedented. Most of the time UTCs have been done on a much more coarse resolution." McGee, Wiseman, and Day are working now to develop tutorials and enhancements to make the new UTC Mapper more user-friendly. 22 Field research assistant Jeanette Hoffman collected urban forest inventory data in Roanoke, VA in summer 2008. Photo by John Peterson City Trees