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 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.  

FY24 Q4: Rangers continue locating and inventorying areas of Chinese privet and other common invasives.  

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 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.  

FY24 Q4:  Germantown park rangers as well as volunteers planted well over 100 seedlings this quarter to help increase our future tree canopy ratio.