Urban and Community Forestry
Trees for People, Urban Forestry 101
Trees Cool Cities and Save Energy
- Strategically planted urban trees reduce energy use by shading buildings in summer and blocking cold winter winds
- As they grow trees remove carbon dioxide and other green house gasses from the atmosphere and sequester them in their leaves, branches, trunks and roots.
For more information: Center for Urban Forest Research
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Trees Improve Air Quality
- By absorbing gaseous pollutants through their leaves
- Binding or dissolving water soluble pollutants onto leaf surfaces
- Intercepting and storing pollutants on the leaf surfaces
- Capturing and storing air pollutants in the uneven, rough branches and trunk
- Sequestering CO2 in trunk, branches and roots
- Shading buildings and pavement reduces the demand for air conditioning and the formation of ozone
For more information: Northern Research Station
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Trees Strengthen Quality of Place and the Local Economy
- Increase property values by 10 to 20 % and attract more homebuyers
- Increase municipal revenue through property tax assessments
- Urban parks provide the settings for festival and other special events that add millions of dollars to the local economy
- In retail/commercial districts shoppers spend more time and money and come back more often
- Give people places to recreate, connect with nature and experience a sense of well being
For more information: Human Dimensions of Urban Forestry and Urban Greening at the University of Washington
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Trees Reduce Storm Water Runoff
- Trees act as sponges that keep water onsite and recharge the groundwater
- A typical urban forest of 10,000 trees will retain 10 million gallons of rainwater per year
- Reduce the amount of runoff and pollutants into creeks
- While manmade drainage systems such sewers and storm drains accelerate the flow of polluted water through community, trees slow it down and clean the water
- Tree canopies and roots protect the soil from erosion
- More trees equals lower costs for storm water management
For more information: Center for Urban Forest Research
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Trees Improve Social Connections
- Planting trees is one of the most valuable ways engage residents
- Creates safer, supportive neighborhoods working for a common vision
- Are a Focal point for community revitalization
- Relieves mental fatigue and impulse control, restoring concentration
- Offers a sense of place and improves the quality of life
- Strengthens the social and economic components of environmental justice
For more information: Landscape and Human Health Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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Trees Help Promote Smart Growth
- Strengthen the urban core by improving public social space and the walking experience
- Give people access to nature in the city
- Add breathing room to more compact development
- Separate incompatible uses and buffer noise pollution
- Support mixed use that improves real estate values and the local economy
- Create an interconnected framework of green infrastructure that recovers ecological function, biodiversity and wildlife habitat
For more information: Smart Growth Network |
Trees Create Walkable Communities
- Tree-lined streets encourage people to walk in their communities and walk further
- Street trees have been shown to calm traffic through neighborhoods
- Strengthen Complete Street policies for all users
- Making streets more walkable and pedestrian encourages transit oriented development
For more information: Complete Streets
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Download this fact sheet as a PDF.
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