A unique partnership will soon use artificial intelligence to take a closer look at all the trees in the city of Plymouth.

It uses a technology called Smart Tree Inventor from the Davey Resource Group and greehill.

Paul Buck has been the forester for the city of Plymouth for the last 32 years.

“I grew up camping and fishing and really enjoyed being outdoors,” said Buck.

Buck says the initial tree inventory for the city was done 40 years ago.

“That’s not very good data when it’s 40 years old,” Buck said. “Our data was there but it wasn’t accurate.”

That’s why the city partnered with Davey Resource Group to use Smart Tree Inventory to get an updated look at how many trees they have and how they’re doing.

“This is the first project to start here in Minnesota,” said Gail Nozal, area manager for Davey Resource Group. “This is really groundbreaking as far as making things more efficient.”

Nozal says through AI, sensors are mounted on a vehicle, driving all over the city, capturing a tree’s species, size and it’s health.

“Taking that data and eventually coming up with environmental benefits for those trees,” Nozal said.

If they find any outliers, another person will go back out to inspect in person.

“It’s a lot of data to process,” Nozal said. “They can make some larger level planning decisions for their entire tree community by collecting this type of data.”

“The program can tell me, ‘Hey, I want to know the top 10% of trees that could fail,'” Buck said. “When a tree or a branch falls on a road, if we can stop that or prevent that, that’s a win-win right at that point.”

The emergence of Emerald Ash Borer started in Plymouth in 2015. Buck says this project is crucial because so much of his attention lately has been on ash trees.

“We’re going to be able to be more proactive than reactive,” Buck said.

This is technology Buck didn’t have when he started here.

“There’s no way anyone could have ever explained to me what AI was back then,” Buck said.

“What would take maybe a crew walking up and down the streets a few months could be collected in a few weeks,” Nozal said.

Both parties agree its a partnership that prioritizes efficiency and sustainability.

“As a city, we’ve not been afraid to step out and go do something that’s on that cutting edge,” Buck said.

The city is paying $80,000/year for the next four years for this work.

The scanning of the trees is expected to begin next May or June when all the leaves are back on the trees.