472 #ClimateAction #IRA #Biden #CityTrees

"The secret ingredient in Biden’s climate law? City trees."
by Matt Simon for Grist [Sept 23, 2024] [Audio available]

https://grist.org/cities/secret-solution-biden-climate-law-urban-trees/

Quotes:
"Planting trees in cities sounds simple. Here's why the Forest Service is spending $1.5 billion on it."

"You’ve probably heard that the Biden administration’s signature climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act, gives people big rebates and tax credits to switch to a heat pump or electric vehicle. But the law also contains a much-less-talked-about provision that could save lives: $1.5 billion for planting and maintaining trees that would turn down the temperature in many American cities."

"The $1.5 billion is nearly 40 times bigger than what the Forest Service typically budgets for planting and taking care of trees in cities each year, and it’s earmarked for underserved neighborhoods."

“It’s unprecedented,” said Edith de Guzman, a researcher at UCLA and director of the Los Angeles Urban Cooling Collaborative, whose research has found that tree cover significantly reduces heat-related hospitalizations. “This is a pinch yourself, once-in-a-lifetime kind of opportunity.”

"Planting trees in cities, though, turns out to be a surprisingly complex challenge. Some species like live oak grow bigger canopies, which provide more shade. Others, like fruit trees, can provide food. Along a noisy street, residents might want bushier trees that better block sound. And all tree species capture carbon and clean the air by hoovering up pollutants. Any green space also reduces urban flooding by soaking up rainwater."

“The native species here are going to do best with our climate, but also provide so many more benefits for pollinators,” said Jordan Herring, arborist and ground maintenance manager for the city of Winchester, Virginia, which received some IRA funding. “Birds, small mammals, they’ve adapted with these species for so long.”

"But just because a species is native doesn’t mean it’s perfect for a given spot. Some species have deeper root systems while others stay closer to the surface, potentially cracking sidewalks and creating problems for residents in wheelchairs."

"Any urban arborist will tell you they can’t do their job properly without taking into account what a neighborhood wants. “We can’t just parachute into any of these neighborhoods and say: Lucky you — we’re here to plant trees,”

"Port St. Lucie, Florida, which also received a share of the IRA funds, holds citizen summits where residents hash out what kinds of tree species they want, and where they want them planted. They also get updates on projects completed since the previous year’s summit."

"Perhaps the greatest challenge for an urban tree is the same for any urbanite: City life can be tough. When choosing species,.../\...some need more light.../\...get tangled up in overhead wires and electrocute itself.../\...trees may get stressed by ever-hotter temperatures and less rainfall"

"But that lack of diversity would mean they’d all reach the end of their lives at once and need to be ripped out en masse. “If you throw in a pest or disease in with that, you have a serious situation on your hands, trying to remove a lot of trees before they die completely,”

"the Forest Service stipulates that the IRA cash goes toward both planting and maintaining. “We didn’t just give these grants and turn them loose,” Wilkes said. “This will be a process that will actually be worked on and monitored over the next five years to make sure that the American people are getting what they’re paying for.”

"Especially in underserved neighborhoods, that could provide jobs while preparing a city for a hotter future. “I think trees can sometimes be seen as a nice-to-have in a must-have world,” Lambe said. “But what we’re learning through science and otherwise is that trees are no longer a nice-to-have. They are a critical part of city survival.”

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