Climate Action and Sustainability Plan June 2021 | Page 108

II . Urban Forest Cover and Leaf Area

Many tree benefits equate directly to the amount of healthy leaf surface area of the plant . Trees cover about 42 percent of Mount Auburn Cemetery Sample Plots and provide 62.5 acres of leaf area . Total leaf area is greatest in Hort Section _ 10 followed by Hort Section _ 54 and Hort Section _ 55 .
In Mount Auburn Cemetery Sample Plots , the most dominant species in terms of leaf area are Sugar maple , Northern red oak , and European beech . The 10 species with the greatest importance values are listed in Table 1 . Importance values ( IV ) are calculated as the sum of percent population and percent leaf area . High importance values do not mean that these trees should necessarily be encouraged in the future ; rather these species currently dominate the urban forest structure .
Table 1 . Most important species in Mount Auburn Cemetery Sample Plots
Species Name
Percent Population
Percent Leaf Area
IV
Sugar maple
8.6
15.7
24.3
Northern red oak
6.8
9.1
15.9
Eastern white pine
6.3
4.6
10.9
European beech
2.1
6.1
8.2
Flowering dogwood
4.8
2.1
6.9
White oak
2.5
4.2
6.6
Norway maple
1.7
4.7
6.5
Eastern hemlock
2.4
3.4
5.8
Black oak
2.4
2.8
5.2
Norway spruce
1.9
2.7
4.6
I-Tree Report of Ecosystem Analysis at Mount Auburn Cemetery Insert to the Climate Action and Sustainability Plan
Page 7