The Life-Giving Force of Urban Forests
urban forest and how does it impact on the environment and our daily lives?
To begin with, urban forests are all around us and accessible twenty-four hours a day, three hundred and sixty-five days a year to everyone including pedestrians and people in vehicles as well as to city dwellers, tourists and to every person who works in or out of doors. Urban forests provide a natural environment to our urban ecology and help improve the quality of life. They are important for cooling the urban environment by providing shade along sidewalks, streets and
buildings, in providing habitat for urban wildlife and for improving the visual quality of our streets and neighborhoods. Urban forests also reduce noise levels and help clean the air by removing and storing carbon dioxide, the gas that contributes to the greenhouse effect.
Urban trees make cities more livable by providing a pleasing, restful and healthy environment. They even increase the value of real estate and help us save money in living expenses. The American Forestry Association recently conducted a study which found that on average a single tree each year can save $73 on air conditioning, $75 in controlling erosion and storm water, $50 controlling air polution and another $75 providing wildlife shelter. Compounding this $273 total
savings in one year over 50 years at a 5 percent interest rate, one tree can save a grand total of $57,151 during its lifetime.
Yet, in the Pacific Northwest, the long, cherished vision of a natural environment and urban beauty is rapidly fading due to increased population and urban development. Especially in Oregon and Washington where millions of new residents have relocated over the last ten years, the population has grown four times faster than the average developed nation. Green fields, grassy lawns and forests have given way to wall-to-wall subdivisions and shopping malls. And
sidewalk plants, trees and other outdoor shrubbery have been replaced with traffic signs, commerical billboards, vending machines, lighting and telephone structures, and to huge concrete, plastic and metal statues of neo-modern art.
In a world of six billion people, the Pacific Northwest is clearly not alone. For not only in major cities like Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego do problems of
population growth and urban development persist and threaten urban forests and the natural environment. In rural towns and suburban communities across the Pacific Northwest similar
growth and real estate development concerns have become an issue; but fortunately new land use planning laws have kept things from getting worse even faster.
In the state of Oregon for example, the environmental group Alternatives to Growth Oregon (AGO) was recently created to attack and solve these and other ecological problems. AGO as well as other environmental organizations in Washington and California are currently working to make a sustainable population (and control public and commerical development) the foundation
of all government planning and private sector efforts.
Of course, some real estate contractors, developers and construction enthusiasts may be well-intentioned in their efforts to provide new jobs, affordable homes, commercial property and shopping and recreational facilities to new businesses and growing families. But legislation is currently underway in both large metropolitan and rural communities across the Pacific Northwest to put a cap on urban development and population growth; and this is being accomplished through education as well as new legislation.
The truth is, growth is not inevitable. Change may be inevitable, but population and consumption growth are not. And these problems are being addressed and can be solved, if people are made and kept informed, and then decide to take a stand. The Urban Forest
Ecosystems Institute (UFEI), located at Cal Poly State University in California, is one such organization busy analyzing and assessing urban forests and providing statisical data and resources to both local governments environmental groups as well as to those who reside in the Pacific Northwest.
UFEI and other environmental groups and private companies know that growth cannot be stopped overnight, nor can the threat to urban forests and other nearby eco-systems be solved through legislation alone. Simply put though, if people are motivated to stop and think–they can then become part of the solution now underway to protect all our natural environment.
Trees and other native flora can be protected during construction and urban development, and even made more plentiful and accessible. Moreover, every person can contribute to their little parsec of urban forest by planting, weeding, pruning, rooting and watering new and old foilage and trees.
In the Pacific Northwest urban jungles have proven to be a compatible partner to urban forests. Together, both have added and continue to add to the quality of our busy lives. And today, more
than ever, every person can continue to enjoy this increased quality of life; but more so by nurturing and cultivating the urban forests located inside and outside their homes and along the byways and highways of every modern city.
To begin with, urban forests are all around us and accessible twenty-four hours a day, three hundred and sixty-five days a year to everyone including pedestrians and people in vehicles as well as to city dwellers, tourists and to every person who works in or out of doors. Urban forests provide a natural environment to our urban ecology and help improve the quality of life. They are important for cooling the urban environment by providing shade along sidewalks, streets and
buildings, in providing habitat for urban wildlife and for improving the visual quality of our streets and neighborhoods. Urban forests also reduce noise levels and help clean the air by removing and storing carbon dioxide, the gas that contributes to the greenhouse effect.
Urban trees make cities more livable by providing a pleasing, restful and healthy environment. They even increase the value of real estate and help us save money in living expenses. The American Forestry Association recently conducted a study which found that on average a single tree each year can save $73 on air conditioning, $75 in controlling erosion and storm water, $50 controlling air polution and another $75 providing wildlife shelter. Compounding this $273 total savings in one year over 50 years at a 5 percent interest rate, one tree can save a grand total of $57,151 during its lifetime.
Yet, in the Pacific Northwest, the long, cherished vision of a natural environment and urban beauty is rapidly fading due to increased population and urban development. Especially in Oregon and Washington where millions of new residents have relocated over the last ten years, the population has grown four times faster than the average developed nation. Green fields, grassy lawns and forests have given way to wall-to-wall subdivisions and shopping malls. And
sidewalk plants, trees and other outdoor shrubbery have been replaced with traffic signs, commerical billboards, vending machines, lighting and telephone structures, and to huge concrete, plastic and metal statues of neo-modern art.
In a world of six billion people, the Pacific Northwest is clearly not alone. For not only in major cities like Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego do problems of
population growth and urban development persist and threaten urban forests and the natural environment. In rural towns and suburban communities across the Pacific Northwest similar
growth and real estate development concerns have become an issue; but fortunately new land use planning laws have kept things from getting worse even faster.
In the state of Oregon for example, the environmental group Alternatives to Growth Oregon (AGO) was recently created to attack and solve these and other ecological problems. AGO as well as other environmental organizations in Washington and California are currently working to make a sustainable population (and control public and commerical development) the foundation of all government planning and private sector efforts.
Of course, some real estate contractors, developers and construction enthusiasts may be well-intentioned in their efforts to provide new jobs, affordable homes, commercial property and shopping and recreational facilities to new businesses and growing families. But legislation is currently underway in both large metropolitan and rural communities across the Pacific Northwest to put a cap on urban development and population growth; and this is being accomplished through education as well as new legislation.
The truth is, growth is not inevitable. Change may be inevitable, but population and consumption growth are not. And these problems are being addressed and can be solved, if people are made and kept informed, and then decide to take a stand. The Urban Forest
Ecosystems Institute (UFEI), located at Cal Poly State University in California, is one such organization busy analyzing and assessing urban forests and providing statisical data and resources to both local governments environmental groups as well as to those who reside in the Pacific Northwest.
UFEI and other environmental groups and private companies know that growth cannot be stopped overnight, nor can the threat to urban forests and other nearby eco-systems be solved through legislation alone. Simply put though, if people are motivated to stop and think–they can then become part of the solution now underway to protect all our natural environment.
Trees and other native flora can be protected during construction and urban development, and even made more plentiful and accessible. Moreover, every person can contribute to their little parsec of urban forest by planting, weeding, pruning, rooting and watering new and old foilage and trees.
In the Pacific Northwest urban jungles have proven to be a compatible partner to urban forests. Together, both have added and continue to add to the quality of our busy lives. And today, more
than ever, every person can continue to enjoy this increased quality of life; but more so by nurturing and cultivating the urban forests located inside and outside their homes and along the byways and highways of every modern city.
