The last post referenced a relationship between the places people live, the trees and vegetation in those areas, and the people who live there. This relationship between trees and vegetation, infrastructure, and humans is environmental, economic, and social (Miller et al., 2015). A large aspect of this refers to ecosystem services trees provide us (Miller et al., 2015). Ecosystem services include filtering stormwater, improving air and water quality, reducing energy costs, and increasing property values. Here is an image of the benefits trees in the urban forest provide us found on https://www.nashvilletreefoundation.org/benefits-of-trees which also goes further in-depth on this subject.
Benefits Further Explained and Resources to help determine trees benefits:
Storm Water Runoff: the amount of water filtrated through the trees during a storm that prevents erosion, flooding, and water pollution from leaching out.
Pollution: Trees absorb pollution from the atmosphere by absorbing CO2, NO2, SO2, Oxide through their foliage. According to NRCS “ Trees remove gaseous air pollution primarily by uptake via leaf stomata, though some gases are removed by the plant surface” (Nowak, 2002).
Reduced energy costs: Trees reduce energy by providing shade and reducing temperatures. This occurs because of the canopy's ability to remove pollutants out of the air, trees' ability of evapotranspiration, and how they provide us shade this reduces the amount of energy it is required to heat and cool our homes and reduced the amount of energy being created by power plants.
Increased equity: Trees appreciate in value and increase property values. This occurs because of the beauty and ecosystem services they provide our homes and as they mature their values increase.
Knowing the benefits of a tree and how we can increase these benefits is a big aspect of working in urban forestry and working with local environments. There are many websites foresters, city planners, environmentalists, urban foresters, and homeowners utilize to help determine the above benefits a tree is providing a specific area. The most common tool is https://www.itreetools.org/ a website designed by the USDA to help determine benefits and tree values, is utilized to maintain the urban forests, and is utilized in designing and selecting species in the urban forest another popular tool is http://www.treebenefits.com/calculator/
Social, mental, and spiritual benefits:
Believe it or not, the biggest element in the urban forest ecosystem is people's relationship with the urban forest. Trees not only benefit us environmentally and economically they increase social wellbeing, social interactions and provide us a sense of connectedness and spirituality. Here are some of the ways trees provide for us socially:
- Trees Provide us a sense of place they connect us to where we are from by connecting people to the environments we live in and are from.
Trees bring a sense of spirituality by connecting us to a bigger picture or higher power.
Trees provide us a place or places to socialize and connect us to one and another
Trees increase our overall well-being by providing us with cleaner and more peaceful environments which can cultivate better peace of mind and as a result cause human beings to be happier.
These are just some of the ways trees benefit humans socially this link goes more into depth:https://www.americanforests.org/magazine/article/people-and-trees-an-intimate-connection/
Please enjoy this youtube video that goes into further depth about trees and our well being:
Citations:
Miller, R. W., Hauer, R. J., & Werner, L. P. (2015). Urban Forestry: Planning and Managing Urban Greenspaces, Third Edition (3rd ed.). Waveland Press, Inc.
Nowak, D. (2002). THE EFFECTS OF URBAN TREES ON AIR QUALITY. Https://Www.Nrs.Fs.Fed.Us/. Retrieved November 26, 2021, from https://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/units/urban/local-resources/downloads/Tree_Air_Qual.pdf
No comments:
Post a Comment