The Case for GREENER CITIES

American Forests, Autumn, 1999 by Dan Smith

SPRAWL IS INFLICTING MAJOR DAMAGE ON FORESTS ESSENTIAL FOR LIVABLE COMMUNITIES. HERE'S HOW TO TAKE A STAND FOR THE TREES.

Signs of America's success are everywhere - literally. Post-World War II development is sprawling out of control, stressing people and communities, taxing patience and wallets, and decreasing livability in the very places we call home.

American Forests has spent the last several years studying one consequence of sprawl: the loss of vital tree cover in our cities and surrounding areas. One look at how that green infrastructure has changed tells us we are headed in the wrong direction. Changing the momentum of the last five decades will be no easy task, but we must shift the way we build communities.

Trees and forests have become more than just an overlooked and underappreciated community resource - they are a resource at risk, and one whose loss is increasingly costly to communities and the environment. Since the early 1970s, three major metropolitan areas - Seattle, Baltimore/Washington, and Atlanta - have lost a third or more of their heavy tree cover. These areas function most like natural forests, protecting watersheds and providing wildlife habitat.

Developed areas with less than 20 percent tree cover are, in turn, rapidly expanding, costing communities, citizens, and the environment billions of dollars in added expenses for stormwater management, air pollution cleanup, and energy consumption.

One solution: protect and restore trees and forests as a cost-effective way to improve the environment, clean our water and air, and make our communities more healthy, livable, and affordable. Another is to concentrate development in ways that protect important natural elements and build community.

To that end, AMERICAN FORESTS is launching a campaign to help people and policymakers understand the full value of trees and forests in and around communities of all sizes. It is time for community leaders to support the upkeep of our green infrastructure every bit as much as that for transportation, water, and power. As part of this campaign, AMERICAN FORESTS is challenging communities to use trees and forests as indicators of the extent of sprawl development and as tools to slow and reverse its most negative effects. The urban forest can be a key indicator of community well-being. The first step is to fully integrate trees and natural resources into the planning process.

FORESTS FACTS

* Trees slow and absorb stormwater, reducing flooding and stream degradation. The trees lost to development in the Puget Sound region since 1973 would have reduced stormwater storage requirements by 1.2 billion cubic feet, the equivalent of a $2.4 billion stormwater management system. Cities across the country are likely experiencing similar losses.

* Watershed forests and streamside forest buffers greatly reduce runoff, providing a low-cost, natural approach to maintaining clean drinking water. This forest cover also protects and restores fish and wildlife habitat.

* Tree leaves help clean pollutants from the air. In large cities, these green filters are worth tens of millions of dollars in air pollution abatement each year.

* Trees make cities livable, adding beauty and keeping them cool. Trees lost in Atlanta's urban core have resulted in temperatures 6 to 10 degrees higher than the surrounding countryside. That directly threatens human health by increasing smog and, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, has contributed to an ever-growing number of deadly heat waves in the past 50 years.

* A Virginia study concludes that as populations grow in rural forested areas, increased tax assessments severely squeeze small-forest landowners. The study estimates that no more than half the state's 15 million forested acres will be managed as working forests in the next century. And when small private forest owners can no longer cope with the tax load and the changing landscape, they are left with few options but to develop their land.

Sprawl's causes are many and complex and not always easy to isolate: the decline in livable cities, public subsidy of services and infrastructure in suburban areas, and rapid population growth to the tune of some 1.3 million new households each year. Since 1980 suburban populations around major cities have grown 10 times faster than their urban counterparts.

When surveyed in June, AMERICAN FORESTS members identified sprawl as the number one threat to trees and forests in the United States. Thirty-seven percent gave it top priority, three times as many as chose air pollution and acid rain (13 percent), overcutting (13 percent), or poor government policies and practices (12 percent).

Understanding the urban environment, where 80 percent of Americans live, is a critical challenge for the 21st century. Computer mapping systems use satellite imagery and aerial photography to help us see urban forests as integral to our ecological systems. That, in turn, helps us understand their role in safeguarding public health and the livability of our communities.