On Tuesday, Aug 10, Skip Kincaid of Hansen’s Tree Service attended the Missouri Bicentennial celebration at the Missouri Capitol grounds with Governor Mike Parson.

The public was invited to attend the formal ceremony celebrating Missouri becoming the 24th state to enter the union and 200 years of statehood on the capitol’s South Lawn. The event began with planting two native oak trees, which kicked off a new landscaping project taking shape on grounds where ash trees were lost due to the emerald ash borer.

Earlier this year, Hansen’s donated a digital Geographic Information System (GIS)-based tree inventory of the site and provided the state with a map and database of the existing trees. A GIS is a computer-based information system designed to work with data referenced by spatial or geographic coordinates. Conducting a digital GIS-based tree inventory allows arborists to analyze urban forested areas, predict future maintenance costs, and project future growth and energy savings. According to a study by James Phillip Wood, “The geographical data which is stored describes objects from the real world in terms of their position on the earth with respect to a known coordinate system, their attributes which are unrelated to their position, and their spatial interrelations with objects around them.” The overlays compiled in a GIS system may consist of raw data, consisting of topographic elevation or thematic information, including soils, land use, or geologic data.

When working together with urban planners, arborists can minimize the damage to the present and future trees. The information Hansen’s gathered is now assisting with managing the tree population and creating new ideas for planting for the capitol grounds.

“Supporting the maintenance and renewal of the tree canopy at the state capitol grounds means a lot to us here at Hansen’s,” Kincaid said. Hansen’s Tree Service is proud to be a part of such a special landscaping project.