It’s easy to say “just plant more trees” to mitigate air pollution. But how? Where? And what kind?
It’s easy to say “just plant more trees” to mitigate air pollution. But how? Where? And what kind?
A new study by collaborators at Rice University, the Houston Health Department’s environmental division and Houston Wilderness establishes live oaks and American sycamores as champions among 17 “super trees” that will help make the city more livable and lays out a strategy to improve climate and health in vulnerable urban areas.
Best of all for Houston, they’re already implementing their plan in the city, and now offer what they’ve learned to others.
The open access study in the journal Plants People Planet -- led by Houston Wilderness President Deborah January-Bevers and colleagues at Rice and in city government -- lays out a three-part framework for deciding what trees are the right ones to plant, how to identify places where planting will have the highest impact and how to engage with community leadership to make the planting project a reality.
Read more at Rice University
Image: Houston Wilderness and corporate volunteers plant “super trees” at an industrial site along Peavy Drive, near Buffalo Bayou. Members of Rice University’s Department of Statistics helped produce a new study that offers strategies to other cities interested in planting trees to mitigate environmental concerns. (Courtesy of Houston Wilderness)
