Equitable Tree Canopy Cover is an indicator of the Midwest Landscape Initiative’s (MLI) 2023 Midwest Conservation Blueprint. The Blueprint is a basemap of priority lands and waters for conservation across the Midwest consisting of over 20 social and environmental values representing diverse interests across society. This indicator was chosen as a targetable, important feature of the MLI goals that will be used to track conditions over time and prioritize areas for conservation. Indicators were defined through elicitation and prioritization exercises with federal and state participants. Criteria for the indicators includes 1) actionable, 2) measurable, 3) relevant to multiple groups across the region, and/or 4) representative of other social and/or environmental values. This indicator identifies tree canopy cover need in urban neighborhoods relative to demographic and environmental metrics within the Midwest Landscape. It prioritizes areas based on existing tree canopy, surface temperature, socioeconomic factors, and health factors. This indicator originates from American Forests Tree Equity Score. To create this layer, MLI partners, members, and staff completed the following mapping steps: projected all input data to NAD83 (2011) UTM Zone 15N, converted the polygon layer to a 30m raster, and classified the raster into seven classes: 7 – least equitable (Tree Equity Score of 1-38), 6 – less equitable (Tree Equity Score of 39-54), 5 – slightly less equitable (Tree Equity Score of 55-66), 4 – median tree canopy equity (Tree Equity Score of 67-76), 3 – slightly more equitable (Tree Equity Score of 77-85), 2 – more equitable (Tree Equity Score of 86-94), 1 – most equitable (Tree Equity Score of 95-100). Finally, we removed highly altered areas using our Highly Altered Areas mask. For full mapping details, please refer to the Midwest Conservation Blueprint 2023 Development Process document.
