Without management and removal, invasive plants negatively affect the ecological balance of the natural landscape. Many public parks, forests and open spaces in Shelby County and Germantown have been infested with invasive plants, especially Chinese privet. Invasive plants “crowd out” the regeneration and growth of trees and native plants. A systematic plan for removal and management of invasive plants is imperative to the long-term health of public lands.

FY25 Q4:  Privet that was previously removed is being monitored for regrowth and sprayed or manually removed.  

FY25 Q3: Natural Resources and the Grounds department has been working to monitor and control any regrowth of privet that was recently removed along the greenway.

FY25 Q2: Natural Resources worked with the Parks grounds crews to remove thick stands of invasive privet along all 10.25 miles of greenway trail.  Crews continue to monitor for regrowth and will spray or pull as any new growth appears.  Volunteer groups, rangers, and grounds staff will continually remove other stands of privet as we work to eradicate this invasive as much as possible.

FY25 Q1: Natural Resources in conjunction with the city's tree crew has begun a project removing large stands of privet and other invasives along the greenway and other parks using a forestry mulcher.  Efforts to remove smaller stands will still be taken on by volunteer groups, rangers, and the cities grounds crew.  

The preservation and protection of Germantown’s public urban forest is a commitment to managing trees as important green infrastructure assets. Performing tree inventories and measuring the tree canopy ratio annually is a management practice to determine gains and losses in the overall tree inventory on public lands.

FY25 Q4:  The tree canopy remains at 56%, and is projected to continue growing in the coming years.  The Natural Resources division, in partnership with the city's grounds crew planted 310 trees throughout FY25.  This trend is expected to continue, in order to increase our canopy size over the coming years.

FY25 Q3:  The tree canopy remains at 56%, however, the canopy is expected to grow in the coming years as the city has planted 271 trees to date, with approximately 20 more to plant before the end of the fiscal year.  

FY25 Q2:  The tree canopy remains at 56% on Germantown Public Lands.  52 new trees are scheduled to be planted this winter by a contractor, 30 - 40 trees will be planted in house in the spring, and 200 bare root seedlings will be planted using volunteer help in the early spring.

FY25 Q1: The Natural Resource Manager/City Arborist began using a program within iTree to get a detailed estimate of our tree canopy on public lands.  The tree canopy on Germantown public lands is currently 56% (+/- 1.56%).  The city is planning to plant close to 300 trees in the coming months.