- Author: Janet Hartin
Landscape trees provide shade, cool urban heat islands, reduce interior energy use and related costs, provide habitat for pollinators and wildlife, and beautify our communities. They also help clean our environment by absorbing carbon dioxide emitted by vehicles and other producers of fossil fuels.
Taking care of our urban trees is an important way to maximize these benefits. Unfortunately, their average lifespan in our cities is less than 1/4 of their potential due to poor selection and care. You can help enact change and increase the health, longevity and canopy coverage of our urban forests by encouraging your city leaders, local non-profit organizations interested in ‘green cities' arborists, landscape architects,...
- Author: Janet Hartin
Many of the landscape trees adorning urban cityscapes in Southern California are at or close to the end of their lifespans.
While several species of oak, maple, crape myrtle, ficus, magnolia and other common shade trees have a life expectancy of 50-80 years or longer in unstressed environments, few reach their full potential in cities and urban areas.
Why? In order to accommodate growing populations, cities have large areas of paved concrete and asphalt surfaces that create ‘urban heat islands (UHI)'.These hard surfaces absorb large amounts of heat that builds up during the day and is released at night, leading to much higher night temperatures in cities than in surrounding areas.