A University of Vermont report on tree canopy for Washington D.C. well explains the need for any urban center to increase its tree canopy: "Urban tree canopy provides many benefits to communities including improving water quality, saving energy, lowering city temperatures, reducing air pollution, enhancing property values, providing wildlife habitat, faciltating social and educational opportunieties, and providing aesthetic benefits." We could also add that trees help to calm traffic and to manage stormwater.
The City of El Paso (or any City) does not have to do it's own research to establish the fact that healthy trees and landscapes are a great investment for municipalities. There are studies already out there that show just that. There are also plans already being implemented that can serve as models for increasing canopy. A good example is the Roadmap to Tree Planning and Planting, a cooperative effort of the Texas Trees Foundation and the City of Dallas.
One can also draw upon studies by other organizations such as the American Lung Association which shows the state by state pollution problems of counties including El Paso County.
Regional Urban Forester, Oscar Mestas, believes that "El Paso does need to and should look at developing a Urban Forestry Department with it own separate funding where the department will be able to develop a management plan that looks at what we have, what is available and how can we go about increasing our canopy." He agrees that reports such as that from the American Lung Association provide good reason to increase the urban tree canopy.
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Thanks for citing our (University of Vermont) work in your blog. If I may, I would like to clarify the work we did in Washington DC as part of a project funded by the USDA Forest Service. The purpose of the urban tree canopy (UTC) assessment was not to establish the benefit of trees, as you point out there is a well established body of work on this. The project focused on accurately mapping the tree canopy in order to help support the establishment of a tree canopy goal and in order to help the city understand where the tree canopy is located and who owns it. This information is crucial for both preservation and planting efforts. An approach to tree preservation is El Paso would be radically different if the city government owned most of the land containing tree canopy as opposed to the residents. A similar approach is needed for informing the tree planting process. Perhaps El Paso is interested in increasing tree canopy on school grounds. This requires answers to two questions: 1) how much tree canopy do the schools currently have, 2) how much land is available to plan trees? Our analysis aims to provide decision makers with actionable information, so they can establish urban tree canopy goals and implement urban forestry plans with the confidence that they are using the best available data. The Road Map to Tree Planning and Planting that you cited (incorporates our methods) is an excellent example of how such information can be put to use. Thanks again for your post.
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