- A racist practice from the 1930s could be impacting
your community's resilience to climate change.
Let me explain.
This is a map of Baltimore.
These highlighted neighborhoods at the top
have more than 40% tree cover.
Now take a look at the center of the map.
These areas have less than 12% tree cover.
Less tree cover means hotter temperatures,
less flood control, more pollution,
and during heat waves, more death.
That's because the more trees the neighborhood has,
the more resilient it is to climate change.
So in this episode presented by TAZO,
I want to know, how do we bring more trees to cities?
This disparity in tree cover is not random.
It's connected back to a racist practice called redlining
which began in the 1930s.
If we take a look at the map again, these outlined areas
at the top were labeled as desirable neighborhoods
by the Home Owners Loan Corporation in 1937.
And you can see that they have more trees today.
Meanwhile, these center areas which are tree deprived
to this day were labeled as hazardous,
because they had large African-American populations.
Redlining, which occurred in hundreds
of communities across the country,
made it almost impossible to get a home loan approved,
which led to disinvestment, poverty,
and a wealth gap between white and Black families,
the effects of which are still being felt today.
And surprisingly, it also led to fewer trees.
- You could layer these maps and see
there's much lower canopy footprint in these spaces
than there are in areas that have traditionally been funded.
Trees have been planted, maintained over time, replenished.
- As the impacts from climate change are being felt
more than ever, not having trees is a big problem.
However, there are organizations on the local, state
and national level working to reverse this trend.
I'll learn from Beattra Wilson,
how the US forest service is working with States and cities.
- Urban forestry is also a jobs producer.
It's an opportunity for people
in the inner city to have living wage careers
- Jad Daley, head of American Forest, a national nonprofit
with a mission to address tree inequity in cities.
- We see a need and opportunity to plant
about 31 million trees per year in cities across America.
- And a local organization in Baltimore, employing members
of the community to plant more trees.
I'm Lucy Biggers, and this is One Small Step.
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- Imagine, you're walking down a tree-lined street
in the summer.
The sun is beating down and it is hot.
But when you're in the shade, you feel comfortable,
maybe even cool.
This experience may seem trivial,
but it illustrates how trees mitigate
some of the worst impacts of climate change.
Research has shown having trees in the neighborhood
can reduce temperatures by as much
as 20 degrees in the summer.
And during a heat wave that could mean life or death.
One study out of Philadelphia found
that increasing tree cover in the city
by just 5% can prevent over 270 deaths per year.
Research has also shown that more street trees
are associated with a lower prevalence
of early childhood asthma.
But due to a history of inequity in our cities,
communities of color have less tree cover.
- Tree equity is really thinking
about reverse engineering that is targeting
these communities that have been systemically deprived
of these green resources.
- Beattra Wilson leads the National Urban
and Community Forestry Program for the U.S. Forest Service.
Beattra's program partners with state
and local organizations across the US,
putting federal dollars to work planting trees.
- Urban and community forestry, if you think about
where people live, work and play,
these are the trees in those spaces.
So I manage a program that's roughly $40 million,
and it's delivered through state forestry agencies.
As a mother of an asthmatic child,
it's absolutely critical that communities
that are already behind the curve with regard to health,
there's this environmental justice component
to trees in communities as well.
And then, you know, we're in the midst
of a pandemic right now, it's a respiratory virus.
And so the opportunity to recreate in open space
and socially distance, if you're like me
who has little ones who need to get outside,
there's the recreation in green space and health activities.
- In addition to improving health and creating jobs,
adding more trees to your city also sequesters carbon,
which helps mitigate the effects of climate change.
- Almost 20% of the carbon capture in trees and forests
in the United States is actually happening in the urban air.
- Jad Daley is the president and CEO of American Forest,
a nonprofit that works to plant more trees in the US.
In November, 2020, American Forest
launched a tree equity score that looks at the disparity
of trees in different cities.
- Which maps tree cover across the country
to show where we have it and where we don't,
neighborhood by neighborhood,
in every urban area of 50,000 people or more.
And then adds in looking at income, looking at race
in those neighborhoods, and helps us identify where
do we not only have a lack of trees,
but where is it most seriously putting people at risk?
And then we are using that data to go city by city
and say, we can do better than this.
We have to deliver true equity.
- Have you looked at the potential of like,
if you just added more trees to cities,
how many that could be?
- We see a need and opportunity to plant
about 31 million trees per year in cities across America.
And if we can sustain that level of planting,
we can both overcome the losses of trees
that we're seeing in some places,
but then also actually move forward and get cities
up to their fuller potential,
concentrate that planting in those neighborhoods
that are underserved in so many ways,
including in new trees.
Great research from the US Forest Service showed
that urban trees reduced home energy use for heating
and cooling by 7.2% nationally.
Translate that into energy we didn't have to use,
gas we didn't have to burn, it's a huge savings
in terms of greenhouse gases that we didn't emit.
- So clearly there are a ton of benefits
to bringing more trees to cities, but planting
and sustaining them, takes a lot of money and people
to do the job.
The Baltimore Tree Trust was founded in 2008
with the mission of increasing Baltimore's
average tree canopy cover from 27% to 40%.
In their first decade, their planting efforts
were focused in nine neighborhoods at East Baltimore,
which is an area in the city impacted by redlining
and with about 10% tree cover.
- It's long been known that parts of East Baltimore
are some of the worst hit areas for various issues
related to community health.
We have huge rates of childhood asthma,
rates of hospitalizations that are are skyrocketed
compared to other parts of the city.
Tree Trusts was founded with the stated initiative
to actually address the equity side of things,
and not just the city-wide effort to increase tree canopy.
- Justin Bowers is the associate director
and chief operating officer of Baltimore Tree Trust.
Right now the organization plants 3000 trees per year,
but in five years they want to plant 10,000 per year.
But it's not just about planting.
In the first two years, a young tree needs care
and attention, and that's where job creation comes in.
- That means watering, that means pruning,
taking care of tree wells in terms of making sure
that stakes are upright, they're mulched.
In the past three years, almost 50 people have come
through our workforce development program
and helped us plant trees and also take care of the trees.
It's a year-round job that provides a living wage
for anybody with almost any background can do it.
And so in Baltimore City where we have huge rates
of unemployment and underemployment,
it's a great opportunity to involve city residents.
- After over a decade of effort to increase tree canopy
in the city, recent reporting by NPR found
that Baltimore's tree cover has only increased by 1%,
and experts estimate the city and non-profits
would have to plant 25,000 trees annually
to reach the goal of 40% tree cover by 2037.
When we're talking about climate justice and tree equity,
these numbers from Baltimore show how bringing trees
to cities is an enormous task,
and that there's way more room for investment.
What are the challenges to bringing more trees to cities?
- So getting buy in from the municipality, getting support
from the mayor's office or your council people
to not only support the benefits of trees,
but recognize them as capital,
you know, in the same way we look at sewers and sidewalks
and all these public utilities that we invest heavily in.
- What year will these trees really be at their capacity
for shade, flood prevention, water-holding,
air pollution purification, all the things
that you mentioned?
- A street tree that we planted five years ago
it was probably already doing its fair share
of shading the concrete around it,
reducing the ground level temperature.
If we're talking about the benefits to air quality
and to improving rates
of pulling out greenhouse gas emissions,
the real optimal age for a city tree
would have to be 25 to 30 years before it's starting
to do that at a rate that is causing a citywide impact.
- What is one small step that people can do?
- Look up.
Take notice of the trees around you and appreciate them
for what they're doing for us,
because they're so much more than just beauty.
Trees are some of the most amazing creatures
that exist in this planet.
- Planting a tree may seem simple, but it's clear,
there are a multitude of benefits.
Trees can help us make up for past inequalities
and help us craft a more equitable future
while also fighting climate change and creating jobs.
I want to thank TAZO for sponsoring this episode
as part of their commitment to fight for climate justice.
The climate crisis has been disproportionately
impacting communities with Black, indigenous
and people of color for decades.
To help make an impact, TAZO is partnering
with singer songwriter, SZA and American Forests,
who we spoke to in this episode, to launch TAZO Tree Corps,
which will create paid, locally-hired jobs
and plant and care for trees in cities across the US
as a first step to combat climate injustice.
Head over to tazo.com/treecorps to learn more.
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