We noticed a huge difference in temperatures in Central Park this summer. Walking with my mother and her caregivers, we found ourselves gravitating to the same leafy locations to escape the blistering summer heat. But it wasn’t just the shade provided to the benches below the giant oaks — there seemed to be a miraculous circular cooling effect in between the tree clusters. Perhaps this is a simple, common phenomenon. But In this summer of record-shattering heat waves, Central Park’s hard-working tree community was a daily gift to all of us. Thank you for another brilliant essay, Bill McKibben. Stacy Clark
Great points. Adaptation has to be a key part of the agenda going forward. Maybe there's potential in giving trees rights, which would then ensure that legally cities are obligated to maintain them? Maybe any tree that is older than say, 30 years old must be maintained by the city and if it is sick or a threat to neighbors, then replaced with a similar tree. This requires a lot of investment and ongoing infrastructure for maintenance, but it can be done - we maintain power lines and sewers, why not consider trees part of the infrastructure of the city?
NYC has an excellent non-profit, Trees NY, that partners with NYC Park Department to train Citizen Pruners: Regular New Yorkers who pass a tree care exam and get a license to help maintain our urban forest (any tree not in a NYC Park.) Sadly, the demand for the certification course far outweighs their capacity, and they sell out almost immediately every session. What a shame the city doesn't fund an unlimited number of volunteer Citizen Pruners. The program offers a huge ROI and protects the city from liability issues caused by damaged/dead tree limbs.
San Francisco voted to require the city to take over care of street trees. A generation's work by Friends of the Urban Forest has made for a lot of tree cover, even in poor neighborhoods. The trees do have to compete with sidewalk parking tho, especially where transit options are poor.
So, about that beer keg incident...Just kidding, Bill. Good piece. We live in the PNW in a well integrated apartment complex called The Park, and it's chock-a-block with trees. Fortunately, the apartment officials handle the care and maintenance, relieving us tenants of that chore, which I think a city should take on regardless of changes in political administrations. And we got through that miserable heat dome this past summer very nicely with those cooling trees...along with our apartment-supplied central air!
Suburbia can be devoid of trees, too. A new swanky development just went into my suburban community and not one overstory tree was required to be planted so nobody bothered. The reason? Raking leaves. We don’t see trees in suburbia.
We noticed a huge difference in temperatures in Central Park this summer. Walking with my mother and her caregivers, we found ourselves gravitating to the same leafy locations to escape the blistering summer heat. But it wasn’t just the shade provided to the benches below the giant oaks — there seemed to be a miraculous circular cooling effect in between the tree clusters. Perhaps this is a simple, common phenomenon. But In this summer of record-shattering heat waves, Central Park’s hard-working tree community was a daily gift to all of us. Thank you for another brilliant essay, Bill McKibben. Stacy Clark
Great points. Adaptation has to be a key part of the agenda going forward. Maybe there's potential in giving trees rights, which would then ensure that legally cities are obligated to maintain them? Maybe any tree that is older than say, 30 years old must be maintained by the city and if it is sick or a threat to neighbors, then replaced with a similar tree. This requires a lot of investment and ongoing infrastructure for maintenance, but it can be done - we maintain power lines and sewers, why not consider trees part of the infrastructure of the city?
NYC has an excellent non-profit, Trees NY, that partners with NYC Park Department to train Citizen Pruners: Regular New Yorkers who pass a tree care exam and get a license to help maintain our urban forest (any tree not in a NYC Park.) Sadly, the demand for the certification course far outweighs their capacity, and they sell out almost immediately every session. What a shame the city doesn't fund an unlimited number of volunteer Citizen Pruners. The program offers a huge ROI and protects the city from liability issues caused by damaged/dead tree limbs.
San Francisco voted to require the city to take over care of street trees. A generation's work by Friends of the Urban Forest has made for a lot of tree cover, even in poor neighborhoods. The trees do have to compete with sidewalk parking tho, especially where transit options are poor.
So, about that beer keg incident...Just kidding, Bill. Good piece. We live in the PNW in a well integrated apartment complex called The Park, and it's chock-a-block with trees. Fortunately, the apartment officials handle the care and maintenance, relieving us tenants of that chore, which I think a city should take on regardless of changes in political administrations. And we got through that miserable heat dome this past summer very nicely with those cooling trees...along with our apartment-supplied central air!
Great piece. Now do Los Angeles. (Please!)
Suburbia can be devoid of trees, too. A new swanky development just went into my suburban community and not one overstory tree was required to be planted so nobody bothered. The reason? Raking leaves. We don’t see trees in suburbia.