Massachusetts is home to millions of trees located not only in forests, but along streets and roadways across urban, suburban, and rural environments. The people living in these communities rely on street trees to provide necessary ecosystem services, such as shading and cooling, or stormwater mitigation. When street trees are damaged during construction projects or other infrastructure development work, communities lose out on these services. Street trees and urban forests are often an afterthought in the construction process and may be severely damaged during construction without proper protection and preservation measures. As Massachusetts develops comprehensive capital improvement projects as part of the Complete Streets initiative, the necessary redevelopment of pedestrian and cycling pathways state- wide will impact the existing urban forest ecosystem. The Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) oversees many of the projects involving roadways and transportation corridors in the Commonwealth. This organization strives to lead by example by evaluating and updating their existing guidelines to reflect current industry best practices. MassDOT is seeking a cohesive collection and assessment of industry approaches to ensure that urban forest health and preservation remain a priority in upcoming improvement projects. This report contains an assessment of current project development guidelines used by MassDOT and evaluates the existing standards in accordance with insight from contemporary sources. We assessed major themes including soil compaction and root zone preservation, awareness on the construction site, and methods for successful reforestation following construction. Our first task was to review the relevant literature to determine the current state of best practices. The literature review focused on street tree preservation techniques during construction and development, as well as design alternatives and remediation strategies. Content surveyed included peer-reviewed research publications, technical documentation, and reference guides from other jurisdictions. The next step was the creation and distribution of a survey for professionals nationwide to assess the current status 10 of street tree preservation practices. Finally, the information gathered from both the literature review and the survey was synthesized and the existing MassDOT guidelines were evaluated in accordance with the research findings. At the time of writing, the existing resource for tree preservation and landscape design for MassDOT projects was an online compendium known as the Project Development and Design Guide (PDDG). Recommendations were made to update and improve the existing MassDOT PDDG to reflect current practices and new insight.