Benefits of a Healthy Urban Forest - Articles

The Guardian (2019)  Greta Thunberg: ‘We are ignoring natural climate solutions’

There is a magic machine that sucks carbon out of the air, costs very little, and builds itself. It’s called a tree.” A recent scientific analysis concluded that growing billions of trees across the world is the single biggest and cheapest way to tackle the climate crisis, though coal, oil and gas burning must also end.

Yale Climate Connections (2019). Reforestation is critical to meeting Paris climate change accord targets, researchers say.

‘Urgency of climate crisis’ is seen as demanding push for vast reforestation across U.S.

IUCN Urban Alliance Promoting health and wellbeing through urban forests – Introducing the 3-30-300 rule

  • 3 trees from every home
  • 30 percent tree canopy in every neighborhood
  • 300 meters from the nearest park or greenspace

Jama Network, 2019Association of Urban Green Space With Mental Health and General Health Among Adults in Australia

…Conclusions and Relevance Protection and restoration of urban tree canopy specifically, rather than any urban greening, may be a good option for promotion of community mental health.

UChicagoNews, 2019. How city planning can consider nature’s impact on mental health

“There is a growing research consensus that suggests that natural greenspaces may be a necessity.”

ScienceDaily UW-Madison 2019 Trees are crucial to the future of our cities

The shade of a single tree can provide welcome relief from the hot summer sun. But when that single tree is part of a small forest, it creates a profound cooling effect. Trees play a big role in keeping our towns and cities cool.

To get the maximum benefit of this cooling service, the study found that tree canopy cover must exceed 40 percent. In other words, an aerial picture of a single city block would need to be nearly half-way covered by a leafy green network of branches and leaves.

Curbed.com 2019 How Trees can Save Us

They are the most effective, efficient, and immediate form of urban climate action—provided they’re planted where people need them most.

EPA.gov Using Trees and Vegetation to Reduce Heat Islands

“Shaded surfaces, for example, may be 20–45°F (11–25°C) cooler than the peak temperatures of unshaded materials”

UChicagoNews, 2019. How city planning can consider nature’s impact on mental health

“There is a growing research consensus that suggests that natural greenspaces may be a necessity.”

Seattle Times – Covering Climate Now (2019) How restoring old-growth forest in Washington state could help fight climate change

The larger the tree, the more carbon can be absorbed and stored, making old-growth forests a boon to mitigating climate change.

“It’s a fairly simple relationship. About half of the mass of the tree is carbon,” said Malcolm North,a U.S. Forest Service research scientist who runs a lab at the University of California at Davis. “As trees get older, they actually grow as fast and faster than they used to. Because of their size, they pack carbon on at a much faster rate than a young forest.”

Douglas Tallamy Homegrown National Park 

A GRASSROOTS CALL-TO-ACTION TO REGENERATE BIODIVERSITY

In the past, we have asked one thing of our gardens: that they be pretty. Now they have to support life, sequester carbon, feed pollinators and manage water.