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- Ruscena Wiederholt writes about a project in Houston to increase tree equity, a change that can impact the environment and community health.
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Mythology imbued trees with special powers — healing and protecting against evil spirits, transmitting knowledge and magical properties, symbolizing immortality or omens of doom. Supernatural or not, focusing on the preeminence of trees was spot-on. Trees have an outsized impact on our communities — cooling our cities, saving us money and bolstering our health. Yet, not everyone has access to these life-giving plants. Communities of color in the United States have 38 percent less tree cover than predominately white communities. And the extent of leafy canopy in lower-income neighborhoods is over a fourth lower compared to wealthier ones.
Houston — a Texas city with only 18 percent tree cover — has a chance to address this inequality. As one of the U.S. cities with the most intense urban heat islands, Houston aims to plant 4.6 million trees by 2030. Thankfully, there’s a new tool at its disposal: the Houston Tree Equity Score Analyzer. By providing detailed data on tree cover, this platform from American Forests aids urban forestry efforts, prioritizes neighborhoods and estimates the benefits of planting trees. It’s a chance for Houston to go green where it needs it most.
Addressing tree inequity
The newly launched Houston Tree Equity Score Analyzer is an offshoot of American Forests’ Tree Equity Score, which maps tree cover in 2,600 urban areas across the U.S. It is a free application developed in partnership with Google.org, Trees for Houston, the local government, environmental groups and residents. Compared to the nationwide platform, the Houston analyzer provides additional tools and insights for planting, setting targets and tracking progress.
In addition to tree canopy coverage, the platform also maps building density, demographics, and other indicators by neighborhood. The overall score given to an area estimates the potential for tree cover and the need for it according to heat severity, income levels, health, employment and other factors.
“To me, tree equity is the acknowledgment that everyone deserves access to trees, to the life-saving, life-sustaining benefits of trees,” said Chris David, vice president of geographic information systems and data science at American Forests. “And creating healthy, heat resilient communities.”
Many communities lack adequate tree cover, often stemming from racist practices like redlining, David said. For instance, formerly redlined communities have 23 percent fewer trees than those that were not.
Wealthier neighborhoods benefit from another advantage, too. “They also have more time to advocate to their local representation for investment in their communities,” David said.
Read the full article about tree equity by Ruscena Wiederholt at Triple Pundit.