Urban forests yield countless benefits to us and our surrounding environment. Trees can improve air quality, support environmental health, strengthen communities, promote physical and mental health and provide economic benefits.
Economic Benefits of Trees
Trees provide numerous economic benefits. Trees can increase the economic revenue for retail shops, prevent unnecessary costs of road maintenance, and increase property values. Explore the following resources, which explain how trees can aid the economy.
Academic Articles:
- Community Image: Setting Roadside and Public Perception
Consumers perceive retailers who incorporate trees and greenspace into their property layout as contributors to the overall well-being of the community in which they set up shop, and are even willing to pay higher prices for goods in the ‘greener’ business district. - The Benefits of Urban Trees
High tree density and landscaping along routes leading to retail outlets has been shown to influence the likelihood that potential consumers will stop and shop. - Business District Streetscapes, Trees, and Consumer Response
Shoppers carry their favorable perceptions of tree-lined storefronts with them as they shop in-store, believing that the products for sale there are of high quality and good value. - Northeast Community Tree Guide: Benefits, Cost, and Strategic Planting
Property values and sales prices increase an average of 3–7% for residences with ‘ample’ trees, especially mature specimens. Higher property sales prices can boost city property tax revenues. - The Urban Forest
Visitors to business districts with trees are willing to travel further distances and pay more in parking fees to take advantage of the welcoming atmosphere, which creates both a pleasant socializing and purchasing experience. - Effects of Street Tree Shade On Asphalt Concrete Pavement Performance
Paved sidewalks, streets and parking lots shaded by trees stay cooler and therefore more resistant to cracking and rutting; costly repaving work can be delayed anywhere from 10–25 years in certain instances by providing shade trees. - How Trees Can Retain Stormwater Runoff
Trees intercept considerable amounts of rainwater, up to 100 gallons each, dramatically easing the burden of runoff on aging stormwater drains and sewage systems. Incorporating trees into water management plans can mean scaling back on the huge expenses of storm drain system repair and replacement. - The Detriments of Neighborhood Transformations in Philadelphia Identification and Analysis: The New Kensington Pilot Study
Landscaping and planting trees in neglected urban lots can result in surrounding property values increasing upwards of 40%.
News Articles:
- Money Growing on Trees
New software systems developed by the US Forest Service can break down the economic benefits of individual trees in an urban forest; using the software program ‘i‑Tree’, it has been determined that each tree in New York city provides $9.02 annually in air pollution reduction, $1.29 in carbon sequestration and $61 in storm-water abatement. - How Trees Can Boost a Home’s Sale Price
Residential properties with ‘street trees’, located between the sidewalk and the street, sell at a premium, and sell faster than properties devoid of prominent trees. Neighboring property values of residences adjacent to trees escalate as well, even if there are no trees on the actual property in question.
Air Quality Benefits of Trees
Trees work in many different ways to improve the quality of the air. Removal of air pollutants and reduction of ozone formation are just a couple of the ways that trees enhance atmospheric conditions. To find out more ways trees help boost air quality, explore the resources below.
Academic Articles:
- The Effects of Urban Trees on Air Quality
In addition to removing pollutants, city trees create microclimates that help to shade and cool many concrete and metal urban structures. Lowering the temperature of an urban ‘heat island’ through trees can lead to more energy efficiency. - Carbon Storage and Sequestration by Urban Trees in the USA
Size matters: Fast growing, large trees in the open canopy of the urban forest sequester and store more carbon on average than their densely concentrated rural relatives.
News Articles:
- Our Urban Forests Improve the Quality of Life
Planting urban trees may not only help minimize air pollution, but also alleviate pollution-related health problems and related healthcare costs.
Health Benefits of Trees
Trees contribute multiple benefits to our health. Promoting physical activity, increasing hospital recovery time, and lessening the symptoms of ADD are just a handful of the ways trees boost physical well-being.
Academic Articles:
- Grounds for Movement: green school grounds as sites for promoting physical activity
Green school grounds, as opposed to turf or hard-scaped areas, allow for more moderate, non-competitive, and inclusive levels of play. - Coping with ADD: The Surprising Connection to Green Play Settings
Children with attention deficit disorders experience less severe symptoms in direct correlation to the amount of green play space available to them. - View through a window may influence recovery from surgery
Post-operative hospital patients who were in a room with a window view including trees, as opposed to patients with a wall-facing view, experienced better positive outlooks and fewer complications after discharge, took less pain medications, and were discharged faster. - Nature and Health: The influence of nature on social, psychological, and physical well-being
Access to green areas aids in children’s development of motor skills, concentration and self-discipline. For many adults, green areas and their vegetative elements, like trees, invite reflection by referencing symbolic meanings that relate to important convictions and values.
News Articles:
- Trees Linked With Human Health, Study Suggests
People living in an area recently cleared of its trees suffer increased rates of death from heart and respiratory disorders. - How Hospital Gardens Help Patients Heal
Less than 10 minutes viewing the elements of nature, including trees, can lower blood pressure, alleviate muscle tension, and alter heart and brain electrical activity enough to induce relaxation, having long-term effects on overall health. - Trees could affect land use, reduce skin cancer
A tree providing 50% canopy coverage can protect a person sheltering beneath its branches from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet radiation for up to 100 minutes; someone standing beneath a canopy of 90% coverage benefits from UV ray protection the equivalent of wearing SPF 10 sunscreen. - Using Trees and Shrubs to Reduce Noise
Urban noise can be distracting, if not downright aggravating. A vegetative buffer 100 ft. wide can reduce noise levels 5–8 decibels; evergreen trees offer year-round noise reduction. - How living near trees can save your life
The air pollution remediating benefits of trees are most effective in areas of greater population density, like urban areas. One estimate quotes that up to $6 billion in healthcare costs can be avoided by planting more trees. - A Tree-lined Path to Good Health
A Japanese traditional healing method known as shinrinyoku, or ‘forest bathing,’ connects regular time spent in forest areas with a stronger immune system response. In this tradition it is believed that trees release an array of phytoncides, organic antimicrobial essential oils that stimulate immune response. - The Health Benefits of Trees
A study has shown that women recently diagnosed with breast cancer had better focus and concentration after spending just two hours a week in natural settings. - Londoners Living Near Street Trees Get Prescribed Fewer Antidepressants
Urbanites whose home range includes tree-lined streets are diagnosed and treated for symptoms of clinical depression less often - Green Space Will Lower Stress For City Dwellers, Reduce Heart Risks
An individual’s heart rate drops an average of 5 beats per minute (bpm) in the presence of city spaces “post-beautification” by tree planting and incorporating greenspace. Overall levels of feelings of optimism increase in the same environment. - Scientists discover that living near trees is good for your health
According to a Canadian study, urban street trees have even more health benefits to the general population, based in part on their increased accessibility.
Social Benefits of Trees
Trees foster a strong social community. Having trees in communities have been known to strengthen social development, reduce crime, and provide spaces for people to come together. Consider the following resources to discover how trees build a better community.
Academic Articles:
- Environment and Behavior-Growing up in the Inner City: Green Spaces as Places to Grow
Green spaces, such as tree-lined courtyards and street corners, encourage the type of creative play and interaction among urban youth and adults that is vital for children’s cognitive development. - Environment and Behavior-Where Does Community Grow?: The Social Context Created by Nature in Urban Public Housing
Trees create a ‘supportive’ and ‘defensible’ living space for many inner city residents, especially those in public housing complexes, by making public and semi-private spaces territories to be enjoyed and protected. - The Benefits of Urban Trees
Studies suggest that office workers directly benefit from the ability to view natural landscaping from their desks, taking fewer sick days and reporting more job satisfaction than those deprived of greenspace visibility. Likewise, patients in hospital rooms overlooking trees and associated vegetation recover at a faster rate than those who do not. - The Role of Arboriculture in a Healthy Social Ecology
Rates of ‘social incivilities’, such as property crimes, graffiti and other forms of vandalism, are lower in areas of well-maintained landscaping including trees, than in vacant areas that portray a sense of abandonment.
News Articles:
- Uniting the Built and Natural Environments
City trees help foster socialization, aid in stress reduction, and can contribute to longer lifespans. - A Sense of Community: Increase Your Joy by Getting Involved
Participating in a tree planting event connects city residents through the communal sentiments of pride and purpose.
Environmental Health Benefits
Trees offer various means for supporting the overall health of the environment. Trees supply wildlife habitats, increase biodiversity, and reduce climate change. Check out the following resources to discover the ways trees promote environmental health.
Academic Articles:
- Understanding the Benefits and Costs of Urban Forest Ecosystems
Trees can have unexpected environmental benefits, such as reducing wind speed and associated structural damage, while leaves and branches of thoughtfully planted trees may distort and muffle bothersome urban noise. - Planting Trees for Biodiversity
Trees help detoxify pollutants from runoff at the root and soil level, are vital to nutrient cycling, and stabilize the shorelines of waterways. - Carbon Storage and Sequestration by Urban Trees in the USA
Urban trees help to sequester carbon dioxide levels, which can be locally higher in city centers due to emissions from heavy traffic.
News Articles:
- Urban Nature: How to Foster Biodiversity
The urban tree canopy, through the inclusion of a variety of native species, can help support, shelter and feed many species of birds and other wildlife that are often overlooked in cities. - Trees for Wildlife: Benefits for Wildlife
All stages of tree life and death are beneficial to wildlife, and should be incorporated into urban forests. Dead and decaying trees provide nesting, shelter, and nutrient recycling for many animals and plants, while complementing the canopy’s living trees.Trees also offer specific water benefits. Trees intercept rainfall before it hits the ground, allowing for a slower release into the ground and evaporation. In addition, tree roots absorb storm water and stabilize fragile slopes and riparian zones-reducing sediment run-off. According to the 2014 City of Pittsburgh Street Tree Inventory, the city’s 33,000 street trees alone intercept 15 million gallons of stormwater a year, for an average of 60 gallons per tree. This figure will only increase as the tree canopy matures.
