Get To Know Trees
Once you start to notice them, you'll realise how much trees do...
The core benefits we derive from urban trees are listed here, followed by a quick sorting game to help you remember the four categories: personal benefits, societal benefits, materials and environmental services.
Personal Benefits
We get
- Improved recovery times from illness
- Improved concentration and productivity
- Reduced stress
- Health and wellbeing benefits
- UV protection
- Noise reduction
- Pollution filtration
- Encourages outdoor recreation
- Reduced heating costs
- Reduced air-conditioning costs
And also
Societal Benefits
- Attractive high streets
- Increased property value
- Increase in consumer spending
- Increase in restaurant usage
- Social cohesion
- Sense of place
- Cultural Significance
- Historical Significance
- Traffic calming and journey quality
- Wildlife and natural landscape connections
- Social development and community connections
- Education opportunities
They give us
Materials
- Timber
- Food
- Fuel
- Forage (food for animals/insects)
- Bio-materials (e.g. from wood cellulose)
- Habitats (homes for animals/insects)
And perform crucial
Environmental Services
- Summer shade
- Windspeed reduction
- Stormwater regulation
- Reduced surface flooding
- Temperature regulation
- Soil infiltration / conditioning (leaf litter)
- Soil conservation (preventing erosion)
- Carbon sequestration
- Oxygen production
- Carbon storage
- Air filtration
- Noise mitigation
Benefit Category Matching Game
Select 4 words that are in the same tree benefit category, then hit “check category”. Keep going; can you turn the whole board green?
Of course, there are also a great many benefits we get from trees that can’t easily be measured, like the way a tree comforts us in times of doubt, reminds us of a loved one or signals relief at the end of a long journey home…
We have always lived with trees; precious threads of the urban fabric which we must not allow to wear thin. In our chaotic city lives, making space to notice that this ancient relationship is still with us today, can bring about a renewed sense of place, and appreciation. By nurturing the relationship, we also foster hope for the future.