Saving Clover Valley - Trees
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| Save the Shade By Charles Lockwood, an environmental consultant based in Southern California and New York City who writes about environmental building issues for Hemispheres magazine. A recent study by American Forests, a nonprofit conservation organization, found that San Diego has just a 13 percent tree cover. American Forests recommends a minimum of 40 percent tree cover for most urban areas. In Atlanta a NASA-sponsored study found that the continued destruction of Atlanta's trees has raised temperatures in the city five to eight degrees higher than outlying areas-which has generated increasingly violent thunderstorms over the metropolitan area and more severe flooding. "The media keeps reporting on the alarming destruction of unspoiled forests around the world, like Brazil's Amazon Basin," says John E. Cutler, a principal in the Houston office of The SWA Group, an international landscape architecture, planning, and urban design firm. "But the media is basically ignoring the equally disturbing disappearance of our 'urban forests' - the trees along streets, in residential yards, and parks in metropolitan areas." How serious is the problem? A study by America Forests shows that the 448 largest urban areas in the U.S. lost more than 3.5 billion trees in just the past 10 years. The Many Benefits of Trees First, trees generate significant, measurable environmental benefits. Trees clean pollutants from the air, including sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, ozone, and carbon monoxide. Just 100 trees, for example, remove five tons of carbon dioxide from the air a year, and about 1,000 pounds of pollutants. Second, trees greatly lower energy consumption. The shade from trees prevents heat islands-the buildup of heat from sunlight pouring onto dark, non-reflective surfaces such as roofs, roads, and parking lots. Strategically placed trees around a house can cut air conditioning usage-and costs-in half. A recent study by the USDA Forest Service Center for Urban Forest Research found that adding 50 million new trees in California would eliminate the need for seven new 100-megawatt power plants. Third, trees reduce the need for (and cost of) storm water management Facilities. One hundred mature trees capture about 250,000 gallons of rainwater per year by absorbing rain and slowing the flow of storm water, allowing some water to evaporate and the rest to soak into the ground. San Antonio, Texas, plans to increase its tree cover from 27 percent to 35 percent to reduce storm. |
| California Oak Foundation - Clover Valley Foundation, California Oak Foundation, United Auburn Indian Community, Sierra Club Motherlode Chapter and ... |
