With millions unspent, Charlotte’s new tree canopy manager sees opportunities
Meet Tara Moore. The former director of conservation partnerships for the North Carolina Wildlife Federation is — as of early October — the city of Charlotte’s first tree canopy program manager.
Moore is tasked with helping to decide what properties Charlotte buys with the fees it receives from developers who skip the city’s onsite tree-saving rules. She is also tasked with helping to manage those properties, which could include removing invasive species or or asking community members what they’d like to see on a particular parcel.
Developers in Charlotte can avoid saving trees on 15% of a lot, if they pay a fee to the city. The city can use that money to conserve land elsewhere — from large suburban parcels to small urban lots.
As of October 2023, Charlotte has roughly $7 million available to spend. Some critics fault the city for not spending more, to patch the growing holes in the city’s shrinking tree canopy, especially in the most urban parts of town.
Q. Tara, what is your role when it comes to preserving land in Charlotte?
A large part of it is going to be buying the properties that we want to put into the Tree Canopy Preservation Program, as conservation land. That is very important, and that is the whole purpose of that program — it’s not just to plant trees. It’s to make it a conservation property in a conservation network.
Q. What do you like about Charlotte’s payment-in-lieu program?
Currently we have a good balance of the properties that we buy. There are some properties that are on the outskirts of the city, and they are bigger properties, like 10 acres. Then we have some properties that are in the downtown area, which are less than an acre.
Q. What goals do you have for the canopy preservation program?
I would like us to buy properties that are a part of a corridor. That is very important to me. I think we can look at areas that are nearby to create a kind of trail in a connected area. And I want to focus on small and large properties.
Q. Some conservationists say the city has ignored its urban areas by buying land on the city’s perimeters. What do you think about that?
We’re thinking toward the future, and the city is growing. So we’re thinking that these lands over here, they may not be as popular now, but they may be a hot site in a few years. If we can protect all of these trees now that’s going to be great for the future.
Q. Some urban properties the city has bought or transferred into its canopy preservation program have remained nearly treeless for years. Why is that?
We didn’t have enough people to get the work done. I’m excited to be here to get working on this because I’ve seen a few of the sites already — I’ve been out to maybe 10 of the sites — and I already have my mind going on what we are going to do there and which of the partners to bring in.
Q. For small, urban properties, how does the city balance adding canopy vs adding other types of green spaces, such as pocket parks?
The TCPP program is a conservation program, that’s why it was created — not just to plant trees. These sites, the ones that are .2 acres, they may not be the right site for a bunch of trees, but it may be the right site for a pollinator garden.
Q. What are your thoughts on spending payment-in-lieu dollars in less affluent areas?
I would love for us to buy properties in low-income areas. Once the canopy analysis data is available we will be examining many different factors in choosing the best places for land acquisition for conservation with one of these factors being the location of marginalized communities. The data will show current tree canopy coverage by neighborhood, which will help to identify those locations where more investment is needed.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Charlotte’s new canopy assessment will be released in the coming weeks., city officials say.
