Jeniece Pettitt
Tree-lined streets are safer and require less maintenance than barren roads, reports the Alliance for Community Trees.
WASHINGTON — Cleaner water, better air quality, lower energy bills, safer streets and healthy communities. Achieving all of these things at once in cities around the country may seem challenging, but in fact, there’s a simple solution. Plant trees.
These are some of the many benefits of trees presented at the 2010 Green Infrastructure Summit in Washington during Earth Day’s 40th anniversary week. The Alliance for Community Trees, a nationwide organization engaged in urban forest preservation, brought together its partners from around the country to grow the message that urban trees support healthy communities.
Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., praised the group’s efforts at the summit. He said people should be “concerned about how we abuse the landscape and how we are wasting more energy than anybody in the world.”
“The agenda that you are advancing,” he said at the summit, “has a very powerful unifying effect that we need. It’s about protecting the planet, saving money and improving the quality of neighborhoods… and doing this for virtually no money.”
More than 80 percent of the country lives in an urban area. ACT’s Executive Director Alice Ewen said trees provide cities with clean and sustainable amenities that are cheap in comparison to “gray infrastructure” spending.
How are trees good for cities? An ACT report offer these details:
Water security
Nearly 45 percent of U.S. water bodies are polluted significantly due to storm water runoff. Trees help cities keep waterways clean by soaking up water and preventing it from washing into clean sources. A study done in Washington, for example, found that urban forests prevent 1.2 billion gallons of storm water from entering the sewer system, saving $4.74 billion in infrastructure costs every 30 years.
Green streets
Research shows motorists benefits from trees and other vertical features to help gauge their speed.
“Having an urban tree canopy actually retards speeding,” Blumenauer said. “I don’t know if it is calming, but it changes driving behavior and makes those communities safer.”
The condition of tree-shaded streets is actually better than on unshaded streets and requires less maintenance, saving 60 percent in repaving costs.
Thriving neighborhoods
Property values of homes with trees are 5-20 percent higher than equivalent properties without trees and can increase home prices by one percent.
“I always tell my sellers trees can add $5,000 to $10,000 on their sale price,” said J.J. Love with RE/MAX Elite in south Nashville. “Trees create a more homey atmosphere. People love that look. Love trees.”
Also, there is evidence that shoppers are more likely to stroll down a tree-lined street, helping businesses in the area, than a barren street.
Energy conservation
We have all enjoyed a nap in the shade of a tree, and the cooling effect of trees can save millions of dollars each year in energy costs. Three to four shade trees located around a house can cut air conditioning costs by 30-50 percent.
A breath of fresh air
One acre of trees eliminates as much carbon dioxide from the air as is produced from a car driving 26,000 miles. ACT also reported that children who live in tree-lined streets have lower rates of asthma.