City officials say they plan to wait for new zoning regulations to be approved before tackling new tree protection rules.
Atlanta’s trees and skyline are shown in June 2025. (Ben Hendren for the AJC)
For Atlanta’s tree lovers, the bottom line from the latest report card on the city’s urban canopy is grim, if unsurprising: The “city in the forest” lost more trees in recent years.
Atlanta City Council members got a briefing on the long-awaited assessment Tuesday from its author, Georgia Tech professor Tony Giarrusso, who warned more of the canopy could soon be lost. Even so, it’s not yet clear what the City Council or Mayor Andre Dickens’ administration plans to do with the findings.
Giarrusso and his colleagues from Georgia Tech’s Center for Urban Resilience and Analytics found that between 2018 and 2023, Atlanta saw trees removed from another 1% of its total land area. It’s a continuation of a yearslong trend of canopy decline captured in four previous surveys.
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Atlanta’s Midtown skyline is seen in this aerial image from 2024. (Miguel Martinez/AJC)
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Drew Kann is a reporter at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution covering climate change and environmental issues. His passion is for stories that capture how humans are responding to a changing environment. He is a proud graduate of the University of Georgia and Northwestern University, and prior to joining the AJC, he held various roles at CNN.
