RNeighborWoods in Rochester improves the appearance, safety, energy efficiency, and value of neighborhoods citywide with boulevard trees.
Since 2004, RNeighborWoods has been working with partners [1], neighborhood by neighborhood, to plan, plant, and manage trees, in order to catalyze city-wide improvement on Rochester’s urban forest. With enthusiastic support from the City Forester, NeighborWoods has trained 115 residents in the Citizen Forester Program, and planted and maintained over 850 trees throughout the community. These trees have an initial combined value of over $150,000, and a mature planted value of about $1.5 million.
All of the trees located throughout the City of Rochester make up our urban forest, which we must work on strengthening and keeping healthy.
Why are trees important to Rochester?
Here are some surprising economic benefits of planting trees (statistics as given by the National Alliance for Community Trees [2].
For every $1 a city invests in trees, it receives benefits of up to $3.74.
Here’s how:
- Lower crime. The presence of trees in urban neighborhoods has been linked to reduced crime.
- Cleaner air. Trees provide the oxygen we breathe. One acre of trees produces enough oxygen for 18 people to breathe each day and eliminates as much carbon dioxide from the air as is produced from driving a car 26,000 miles. Tree leaves help trap and remove tiny particles of soot and dust which otherwise damages human lungs and tree root networks filter contaminants in soils producing clean water. Forty trees will remove 80 pounds of air pollutants annually. That is, 4 million trees would save $20 million in annual air pollution cleanup.
- Noise control.Trees can reduce highway noise by 6-10 decibels.
- Streets last longer.Streets with little or no shade need to be re-paved twice as often as those with 30% tree cover.
- Energy savings. Trees lower the temperature through shade. The cooling effects of trees can save millions of energy dollars. 3-4 shade trees located strategically around a house can cut summer cooling costs by 30-50%. For one million trees, that's $10 million in energy savings.
- More public revenue. Studies have shown that trees enhance community economic stability by attracting businesses and tourists. People linger and shop longer along tree-lined streets. 40,000 trees in commercials parking lots would induce shoppers to spend 11% more for goods and services.
- Higher property values. Property values of homes with trees in the landscape are 5 - 20% higher than equivalent properties without trees. 4000 trees in yards would increase the sales price of homes by 1%, plus increase the property values as much as 10%. That is an estimated annual increase in homes sale value of $10.4 million.
- More efficient stormwater management. Roots stabilize soil and prevent erosion by trapping soil that would otherwise become silt. Silt destroys fish eggs and other aquatic wildlife and makes rivers and streams shallower, causing more frequent and more severe flooding. Trees along streams hold stream banks in place to protect against flooding. One tree reduces 4000 gallons of storm water run off annually. 400 trees will capture 140,000 gallons of rainwater annually. That is, 4 million trees would save $14 in annual storm water runoff costs.
An equally important component to the NeighborWoods in Rochester program is the opportunity for citizens to become more civically engaged and take an active role in caring for Rochester’s urban forest through the two day Citizen Forester training. NeighborWoods allows neighbors, friends, families, and children to assist in the responsibility of learning, working, and caring for the environment in their community.
As residents participate in the NeighborWoods program, they come to understand the crucial role trees play in our community. The program recognizes that it is the grassroots participation, advocacy, and care from community members and partners that will allow Rochester’s urban forest to thrive and grow in the future.
In December 2005, the RNeighbors' Rochester City Tree Trust was established through the Rochester Area Foundation, to build the financial stability for a healthy Rochester urban forest.
It is the role of the RNeighborWoods in Rochester program to share with residents its networks, resources, and knowledge so that we may teach each other and improve and protect our communities forests. In 2006, RNeighbors joined the National Alliance for Community Trees [3], giving us acess to additional resources and knowledge to move the program forward with.
Check out RNeighborWoods News [4], for the latest on what's happening in our neck of the woods.