There are 59 municipalities, villages, and townships in Cuyahoga County. The City of Cleveland comprises about 17% of the County’s total land area and is surrounded by approximately two dozen highly urbanized inner-ring communities.

Outer-ring communities in Cuyahoga County feature less dense development patterns. The Cleveland Metroparks system is extensive (18,649 acres in Cuyahoga County) and touches many communities throughout Cuyahoga County. Other significant park acreage is held by the Cuyahoga Valley National Park (2,800 acres), numerous local parks, and other conservation land.

The Ohio Constitution gives tremendous local control to its communities through “home rule”, a provision which authorizes Ohio communities to govern themselves through local laws. Thus, communities in Ohio can establish policies for land use and development and protect the natural environment through local statutes. This provision in the Ohio Constitution recognizes that a community best knows how to serve its needs.

Community-level metrics for tree canopy are important because they serve as a realistic basis for a community to develop goals, policies, and possibly legislation for the management of trees.

Existing & Possible Tree Canopy

Geography, development, and community standards can all impact tree canopy in individual communities. As a result, the existing tree canopy in Cuyahoga County is not evenly distributed. Viewing the bar chart and the map below, one can see that half (30) of the communities in Cuyahoga County have less than the County average of 34.7% for Existing Tree Canopy. The tree canopy in Cleveland, measured at 17.9%, is well below the County average. Several inner-ring suburban communities exceed the county average for tree canopy including Bedford, Cleveland Heights, Fairview Park, Shaker Heights and South Euclid. Except for Bratenahl, nearly all the leading Tree Canopy communities are located in outlying suburbs. The cities of Brook Park, North Randall and Warrensville Heights have an average tree canopy below that of Cleveland.

A community’s “Possible Tree Canopy” measurement provides an indication of available land for tree planting. Again, viewing the bar chart below, one can see the extent of suitable non-tree canopy land, including “Possible-Vegetated” (light green) and “Possible-Impervious” (light red). The map below shows the Percent of ‘Possible’ land for each community where trees do not currently exist.

Existing Tree Canopy

Possible Tree Canopy

Components of Tree Canopy

Change, 2011-2017

No Cuyahoga County communities showed a substantial gain in tree canopy. Only two communities (Euclid and Cuyahoga Heights) showed minor gains of about 2.5%. Additional study would be needed to determine what specific factors contributed to these changes.

Many communities showed a decline in Tree Canopy from 2011 to 2017, with nine losing more than 10% of their canopy. Six of those were the inner ring suburbs of Berea, Bratenahl, Cleveland Heights, Lakewood, Shaker Heights and University Heights.

The City of Cleveland lost nearly 5% of its 2011 tree canopy area, from 18.8% to 17.9% canopy. Despite gaining over 1,200 acres of new canopy, Cleveland also lost over 1,600 acres of canopy from 2011 to 2017.

Change by Community

Tree Canopy Data by Community

Existing Tree Canopy Possible Planting Area (Vegetated) Possible Planting Area (Impervious) Not Suitable Change
Name Total
Area,
Excluding
Water
(Acres)		 Acres Percent Acres Percent Acres Percent Acres Percent Acres Percent
Bay Village 2,877 1,292 45% 857 30% 269 9% 459 16% -113 -8%
Beachwood 3,337 756 23% 1,238 37% 674 20% 668 20% -70 -9%
Bedford 3,411 1,335 39% 1,024 30% 536 16% 515 15% -59 -4%
Bedford Heights 2,910 627 22% 1,081 37% 578 20% 624 21% -41 -6%
Bentleyville 1,650 1,217 74% 335 20% 37 2% 61 4% -14 -1%
Berea 3,617 1,065 29% 1,223 34% 636 18% 694 19% -133 -11%
Bratenahl 651 275 42% 197 30% 75 12% 104 16% -34 -11%
Brecksville 12,258 6,975 57% 3,630 30% 810 7% 843 7% -669 -9%
Broadview Heights 8,291 3,384 41% 3,219 39% 830 10% 858 10% -267 -7%
Brook Park 4,857 808 17% 1,693 35% 1,197 25% 1,159 24% -71 -8%
Brooklyn 2,721 514 19% 903 33% 683 25% 621 23% -22 -4%
Brooklyn Heights 1,142 281 25% 396 35% 236 21% 228 20% 3 1%
Chagrin Falls 1,345 744 55% 352 26% 96 7% 154 11% -11 -1%
Chagrin Falls Township 313 219 70% 81 26% 5 2% 8 3% -21 -9%
Cleveland 49,589 8,904 18% 13,848 28% 12,943 26% 13,895 28% -449 -5%
Cleveland Heights 5,155 1,951 38% 1,292 25% 838 16% 1,074 21% -300 -13%
Cuyahoga Heights 1,990 417 21% 628 32% 544 27% 401 20% 10 3%
East Cleveland 1,977 618 31% 511 26% 373 19% 475 24% -45 -7%
Euclid 6,838 1,924 28% 2,123 31% 1,277 19% 1,515 22% 48 3%
Fairview Park 2,976 1,179 40% 939 32% 351 12% 507 17% -111 -9%
Garfield Heights 4,615 972 21% 1,610 35% 1,104 24% 929 20% -47 -5%
Gates Mills 5,714 3,996 70% 1,368 24% 143 2% 208 4% -210 -5%
Glenwillow 1,787 528 30% 903 51% 207 12% 149 8% -60 -10%
Highland Heights 3,263 894 27% 1,432 44% 428 13% 510 16% -74 -8%
Highland Hills 1,266 329 26% 713 56% 122 10% 102 8% 1 0%
Hunting Valley 4,430 3,004 68% 1,235 28% 96 2% 94 2% -42 -1%
Independence 6,052 2,436 40% 2,078 34% 842 14% 696 11% -219 -8%
Lakewood 3,509 800 23% 950 27% 700 20% 1,058 30% -182 -19%
Linndale 43 9 20% 8 20% 13 30% 13 30% 0 -2%
Lyndhurst 2,821 874 31% 1,058 38% 408 14% 481 17% -95 -10%
Maple Heights 3,309 718 22% 1,063 32% 776 23% 752 23% -31 -4%
Mayfield 2,500 1,274 51% 672 27% 261 10% 291 12% -78 -6%
Mayfield Heights 2,669 493 18% 948 36% 602 23% 627 23% -58 -10%
Middleburg Heights 5,112 1,534 30% 1,872 37% 906 18% 801 16% -149 -9%
Moreland Hills 4,592 2,919 64% 1,250 27% 201 4% 222 5% -258 -8%
Newburgh Heights 375 72 19% 127 34% 96 26% 80 21% -4 -5%
North Olmsted 7,459 3,019 40% 2,372 32% 897 12% 1,172 16% -114 -4%
North Randall 499 48 10% 140 28% 218 44% 92 19% -2 -5%
North Royalton 13,594 5,869 43% 5,262 39% 1,217 9% 1,246 9% -553 -9%
Oakwood 2,183 583 27% 977 45% 354 16% 269 12% -58 -9%
Olmsted Falls 2,580 1,139 44% 862 33% 240 9% 339 13% -26 -2%
Olmsted Township 6,116 2,509 41% 2,635 43% 418 7% 554 9% -1 0%
Orange 2,410 1,134 47% 902 37% 162 7% 212 9% -86 -7%
Parma 12,789 3,364 26% 4,414 35% 2,474 19% 2,537 20% -288 -8%
Parma Heights 2,687 755 28% 892 33% 498 19% 542 20% -78 -9%
Pepper Pike 4,569 1,934 42% 1,805 40% 387 8% 441 10% -257 -12%
Richmond Heights 2,823 994 35% 1,078 38% 349 12% 401 14% -33 -3%
Rocky River 2,992 924 31% 918 31% 460 15% 689 23% -47 -5%
Seven Hills 3,138 994 32% 1,288 41% 369 12% 487 16% -96 -9%
Shaker Heights 4,020 1,437 36% 1,210 30% 598 15% 775 19% -183 -11%
Solon 12,868 5,184 40% 4,836 38% 1,317 10% 1,531 12% -75 -1%
South Euclid 2,973 1,051 35% 832 28% 517 17% 573 19% -110 -10%
Strongsville 15,682 6,032 38% 5,667 36% 1,776 11% 2,206 14% -535 -8%
University Heights 1,166 301 26% 312 27% 254 22% 299 26% -37 -11%
Valley View 3,506 1,376 39% 1,253 36% 577 16% 300 9% -25 -2%
Walton Hills 4,354 2,380 55% 1,353 31% 326 7% 295 7% -138 -5%
Warrensville Heights 2,635 467 18% 930 35% 617 23% 622 24% -29 -6%
Westlake 10,085 4,195 42% 3,134 31% 1,247 12% 1,509 15% 54 1%
Woodmere 209 64 31% 65 31% 44 21% 36 17% -6 -8%
Cuyahoga County 291,301 101,091 35% 95,999 33% 45,208 16% 49,003 17% -6,598 -2%