San Antonio’s Tree Deficit

Despite increasing public awareness of trees’ health and aesthetic benefits, San Antonio has a steadily growing deficit of 1.4 million trees. This deficit is the difference between scientific recommendations for the city's tree canopy cover and the current state of San Antonio's urban forest.

Satellite image of San Antonio in 2003,
classified according to land cover

An analysis of 2003 satellite imagery provided by American Forests shows that San Antonio needs over 28,000 acres of additional tree canopy. Since those images are 5 years old, it is likely that the deficit is significantly higher today, especially in light of recent land development activities.

In 2003, an Urban Ecosystem Analysis for San Antonio recommended 35% overall tree canopy cover for the city. This recommendation strikes a balance between environmental health and development density by suggesting lower canopy cover in the downtown area and progressively higher levels in suburban and aquifer recharge zone areas. By basing canopy cover recommendations on a national assessment of urban forests, San Antonio's goals were placed in context with similar U.S. cities.

Attempts by the City to enforce tree preservation rules have helped slow tree loss, even though many large development projects are exempt. The data show that local tree planting efforts are clearly inadequate, and that City and County programs need to ramp up by orders of magnitude.