Are we there yet? Metrics missing - Denver not sure where it stands on UTC goal progress

Greenprint Denver: Enhancing the city forest - Rocky Mountain Independent:
By Tillie Fong September 8, 2009 9:01 AM
Greenprint Denver is halfway through its four-year plan to make Denver more sustainable. This is the fourth in a series looking at specific goals in the plan and the progress that has been made.
Denver is leading the way in planting trees as part of the Tree by Tree — Mile High Million program, but it is not clear exactly how much progress the city has made in increasing its tree canopy.
Under the Greenprint Denver plan, the goal for enhancing Denver’s urban forest is to increase tree coverage to 18 percent from 6 percent.
In 2006, Denver had 12.39 square miles of tree canopy, or roughly 10.5 percent of the city’s land mass. To reach 18 percent, Denver must have 21.42 square miles of tree coverage. It isn’t known, though, how many individual trees are needed to provide that canopy.
“Due to the variability of tree sizes, we are unable to translate the cover number into a tree count,” said Denise Stepto, spokeswoman for Greenprint Denver.