A public ledger for Miami's disappearing canopy.
Miami Canopy Watch turns the City of Miami's public permit portal into something you can actually read, search, and map. We systematically index every permit where the Job Category is TREE PERMIT so residents, journalists, and policymakers can see what is being approved, where, and at what scale.
Mission
Why this site exists
Canopy as infrastructure
Miami’s tree canopy is climate infrastructure. It cools neighborhoods by up to 15 degrees, reduces flooding, and absorbs the brunt of hurricane winds. Every specimen lost is infrastructure lost.
Visibility before action
You cannot organize around what you cannot see. The iBuild portal is technically public, but it is not legible. We make it legible — one address, one species, one permit at a time.
Hold permits accountable
Many removals are pre-approved as a footnote inside larger demolition or new-construction packages. We surface those connections so the public record reflects the full cost of development.
Built for residents
Neighbors, civic groups, and journalists should not need a developer to FOIA their own city. This site is free, open, and designed to be searched on a phone from the curb in front of a tree.
Legal posture
This is public data. Civic use is protected.
The iBuild portal is a public government system that exposes records intended for public consumption. Indexing those records for civic, journalistic, and research purposes has been repeatedly upheld in U.S. courts. We follow the same playbook used by Code for America brigades, Code Miami, and accountability newsrooms.
Florida Sunshine Law
Chapter 119 of the Florida Statutes establishes a broad presumption of public access to government records. Permit data is squarely within scope.
Polite, throttled access
We rate-limit our scraper, honor robots.txt where applicable, identify our user-agent, and cache responses so we never hammer the city's servers.
hiQ v. LinkedIn precedent
U.S. courts have consistently ruled that scraping public web pages does not violate the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Government portals get even stronger protection.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Built by
A civic-tech project, made possible by Serpens Inc.
Serpens Inc. designs accountability infrastructure for cities. Miami Canopy Watch is one of several open data projects we maintain in collaboration with local journalists, neighborhood associations, and environmental groups across South Florida.
Visit serpans.appGet involved
Spotted a removal in your neighborhood? Working on a story? We share data, code, and methodology with journalists and researchers at no cost.
Open source
The indexer, the schema, and this entire site are open source. Fork it, adapt it for your city, and tell us what you find.
Disclaimer
Miami Canopy Watch is an independent civic-tech project and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the City of Miami. All permit data is sourced from the city's public permit portal.