With weather events becoming more extreme, we continue looking for solutions. A new report is highlighting the power of trees planted in urban areas to help alleviate some of the impacts in our changing climate.
Urban communities are generally warmer than surrounding areas because of the urban heat island effect. This happens because pavement and buildings hold on to heat and reflect it back into the surrounding air. Paved surfaces also don’t absorb rain well and are prone to flooding. And traffic in urban areas contribute to poor air quality.
Trees have many critical benefits in our increasingly warmer world. They provide shade, absorb rainfall with their roots system and help our physical and mental health when we get outside.
Climate Central, a nonprofit group that reports on climate change, analyzed data from the U.S. Forest Service and summarized the benefits of urban trees. The report includes many California cities like San Diego, San Francisco and San Jose.
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In San Jose, we were able to avoid about 91 million gallons of storm runoff. That’s roughly 137 Olympic-sized swimming pools. Trees here in the city also helped improve the air we breathe by removing, about 800,000 tons of carbon dioxide and other particulate matter.
We can all protect and support urban forests to continue benefitting from them. If you want to learn more, read the full report.
