What Trees Offer City Dwellers

One of the many wooded settings in San Francisco. Photo by Zoe Hoyle.

 

Urban parks and forests may well be the only “nature” that many Americans experience, and the first contact that many children have with the great outdoors. Forming that connection in the urban forest may be a first step towards a hike in a national forest. And there many more benefits from urban trees than first meet the eye: 

1) Trees improve air quality by trapping dust, ash, and pollen as well as producing cooling shade. One acre of trees produces enough oxygen in a day to support 18 people. It’s been estimated that the trees in Atlanta, Georgia remove almost 10,000 tons of air pollutants every year.

2) Trees clean water by slowing the flow of stormwater that frequently includes sediment and pollutants washed from impervious surfaces such as roads and parking lots. During a heavy rain, a healthy forest can absorb thousands of gallons of water an hour.

3) Trees reduce city noise by absorbing sound.

4) Urban forests provide habitat for wildlife species that range from insects, to bats and birds, to reptiles and amphibians, to rabbits, foxes, bobcats, coyotes, and deer.

5) Wooded areas near work and retail areas encourage people to get out and take walks. Studies continue to show that walking outside in the woods relieves stress and increases feelings of well-being. Urban forests and parks are also popular as places to run, bike, rollerblade, watch birds, and relax.

6) Studies have also shown that people who live near common green spaces are more likelhy to interact with their neighbors, increasing community vitality.

 Read more about tree benefits at the Georgia Forestry Commission website.

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SRS Scientist Appointed Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Forestry

 

Don C. Bragg, research forester with the SRS Southern Pine Ecology and Management unit. Photo courtesy of U.S. Forest Service.

 U.S. Forest Service scientist Don C. Bragg was recently named editor-in-chief of the Journal of Forestry, the most widely circulated scholarly forestry journal in the world and recipient of several national awards for excellence.

Produced by the Society of American Foresters (SAF), the Journal of Forestry seeks to advance the profession of forestry by publishing manuscripts that keep forest management professionals informed about significant developments and ideas in a wide range of forestry topics.  SAF is a nonprofit organization founded by Gifford Pinchot in 1900, and it is the largest professional society for foresters in the world. Members include natural resource professionals (both private and public sector), researchers, CEOs, administrators, educators, and students.

Bragg’s appointment as editor-in-chief follows a range of editorial experiences which includes associate editor (forest ecology) with the Journal of Forestry from 2008 to 2012 and book reviews editor for the Natural Areas Journal from 2007 to 2012. He was also the founding editor-in-chief of the Bulletin of the Eastern Native Tree Society.

Bragg has been a research forester with the Forest Service Southern Research Station Southern Pine Ecology and Management unit in Monticello, Arkansas since March 2000. Author of more than 80 refereed and technical publications, his research interests include southern pine silviculture, forest dynamics modeling, applied historical ecology, restoration of old-growth ecosystems, disturbance ecology, riparian large woody debris recruitment simulation, the history of forestry, and birdseye sugar maple. –Maureen Merriman

For more information, email Don C. Bragg at dbragg@fs.fed.us.

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New Tools for Urban Foresters

Mississippi State University students help collect data for the iTree analyses conducted in DeSoto County. Photo by Eric Kuehler.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Across the southeastern United States, rapid urbanization is transforming previously rural areas and creating new environmental challenges. Desoto County, Mississippi, is emblematic of these changes: since 1970, its population has increased by 430 percent, from 36,000 people in 1970 to 159,000 in 2010.

The Environmental Protection Agency lists Desoto County as an ozone “non-attainment” area, which means ozone emissions are above allowable limits set by federal regulation. Ground level ozone, the main ingredient in smog, can trigger asthma attacks and causes lung damage. The ruling will likely mean that the state will have to take expensive actions to limit pollution emissions from cars and commercial/industrial sources.

Eric Kuehler is a U.S. Forest Service technology transfer specialist at Urban Forestry South, a research work unit of the Southern Research Station (SRS). Using data collected by local volunteers and forestry students from Mississippi State University, Kuehler and his colleagues conducted a series of analyses using iTree, a free, peer-reviewed software suite from the Forest Service that quantifies the environmental services trees provide.

In Desoto County, researchers assessed the structure, function, and value of the urban forest in terms of size and makeup of the urban canopy and its role in removing air pollution and sequestering carbon. The study aimed to establish a baseline for assessing tree cover in the county, and to describe the value of the urban forest in quantitative terms that would be useful for policymakers.

Kuehler and his colleagues found that over 19 million trees grew in Desoto County, with 27 percent of the county covered by tree canopy. In relation to the county’s current air quality problems, the analysis estimated that trees in Desoto County currently remove 5,560 tons of air pollution (ozone, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and particulate) per year, at an estimated value of $40.5 million per year.

Landowners, residents and local officials in emerging urban areas like Desoto County can expect environmental challenges. However, counties can take significant steps to mitigate those problems by developing policies that restrict impervious surface cover development, reduce significant land changes from agriculture to urban—and increase tree canopy cover to help alleviate the heat island effect and ultimately reduce pollution levels.

“iTree describes the value of urban forests in terms that policymakers can understand. It provides good science-based information on the function and value of trees,” says Kuehler. “In this tough budgetary environment, counties are closely assessing how they allocate their scarce resources. If we can show the value that trees have in terms of pollution removal, reduction in stormwater runoff and erosion, and energy savings, local officials will look more closely at the value that urban forestry programs can contribute.”  –Sarah Farmer

Excerpted from Josh McDaniel’s article in Leaves of Change, Issue 13, November 2012.

For more information, contact Eric Kuehler at ekuehler@fs.fed.us

More information about iTree

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