City tree data in Cambridge, Massachusetts: the Street Trees dataset

This page describes a public dataset as its portal publishes it. It reports the portal's own description, column list, record counts and licence field as read on October 9, 2026. It does not interpret the numbers. The family overview is on the guide to city open tree data. The diversity targets that cities set for street trees are on the street tree diversity guide.

What the dataset is

The dataset is titled Street Trees, attributed to Cambridge GIS and listed in the Public Works category. Its description names the City of Cambridge, the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, MIT, Harvard University and other private organisations as owners of the trees and planting sites. It names Cambridge Public Works as the maintainer of the layer and the City Arborist as the person who updates it regularly, and it links the City's GIS data dictionary page for the full metadata.

Records and update

The portal's record query returned a count of 43,287 on October 9, 2026. The portal's rows-updated timestamp was October 7, 2026, and the record was created on the portal on June 10, 2021. A note in the description says the data is refreshed on a set schedule and that the portal's edit date may not match the edit dates inside the rows. The record gives the estimated update frequency as "As Needed". The highest removal date among rows was October 5, 2026 and the highest planting date was August 13, 2025.

Columns

The record has 54 columns, five of them computed regions the portal added. The tree columns include the tree identifier, number of trunks, site type, planting and removal dates, species, cultivar, street number and street name, a memorial tree flag, location type, ownership, ADA compliance of the site, tree grate condition, bare-root planting, diameter, tree well cover, structural soil, root flare visibility and a solar radiation rating from 1 to 5. The diameter column is described as inches at about 4.5 feet above ground. The site type description says that field supersedes conflicting data in a record, so a Planting Site record means any diameter and trunk values no longer apply.

What the site type, owner and location columns hold

The site type column reads Tree on 31,189 records, Retired on 8,522, Proposed Tree on 478, Refused Not Planted on 199, Not Installed Issue on 126, Stump on 99, Planting Site on 98, Damaged Tree Well on 45, Unknown on 21 and Spar on 8, and is empty on 2,502. The ownership column reads City on 33,385, Harvard on 5,139, MIT on 2,276, DCR on 1,796 and Other on 556, with smaller counts for private back of sidewalk and MBTA. The location column reads Street Tree on 22,002 records, Park Tree on 8,876, Public School on 1,264, Cemetery Tree on 1,082 and Fresh Pond Reservation on 728, and is empty on 7,720. The overhead wires column reads 1 on 5,473 records and 0 on 37,814.

Licence

The record's licence is the Open Data Commons Public Domain Dedication and License, and it links the Open Data Commons page for that licence.