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Land Planning Program

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Tree Preservation and Planning

So, tell me about trees and planting...

Trees are the original multi-tasker, playing a vital role in social, ecological and economic spheres. As trees beautify and shade our communities, their leaves and roots clean the air we breathe and the water we drink. Trees serve as nature's public utilities with quantifiable results in storm water management, air quality improvement, and energy conservation. With all these benefits in mind, communities have a lot to gain by developing tree preservation, planting, and replacement standards for their area, starting with a tree policy to spell out specific goals. A tree ordinance will give that policy greater definition and muscle as it serves to direct public and private development. With these in place, tree-planting programs can help energize and direct the community effort toward a healthier, more attractive environment.

What are the Benefits?

Economic:

  1. Trees increase property values in neighborhoods and can increase the property value of your home by more than 15%.
  2. Trees shade and cool: Shade from trees reduces the need for air conditioning in the summer. In winter, trees break the force of winter winds, lowering heating costs. Studies have shown that parts of cities without cooling shade from trees can literally be "heat islands," with temperatures as much as 12 degrees Fahrenheit higher than surrounding areas.
  3. Trees act as windbreaks: During windy and cold seasons, trees act as windbreaks. A windbreak can lower home heating bills up to 30%. A reduction in wind can also reduce the drying effect on other vegetation behind the windbreak.
  4. Sustainable forestry management can provide for quality tree growth and renewal offering revenue for future generations, both environmental and economic.

Home in Vass, NC

Trees can increase property values of individual homes and neighborhoods.

Environmental:

  1. Trees produce oxygen: A mature leafy tree produces as much oxygen in a season as ten people inhale in a year.
  2. Trees become "carbon sinks": To produce its food, a tree absorbs and locks away carbon dioxide, a global warming suspect. An urban forest is a carbon storage area that can lock up as much as it produces.
  3. Trees clean the air: Trees help cleanse the air by intercepting airborne particles, reducing heat, and absorbing such pollutants as carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide. Trees remove their air pollution by lowering air temperature, through respiration, and by retaining particulates.
  4. Trees fight soil erosion: Trees fight soil erosion, conserve rainwater, and reduce water runoff and sediment deposit after storms.
  5. Trees reduce storm water runoff, flooding and erosion, improving water quality.
  6. Protection of habitat for endangered species such as the Red Cockaded Woodpecker.

Fenced Landscaping in Vass, NC

Trees act as a sound barrier between homes and roads.

Social:

  1. Trees make great sound barriers between homes and urban noises such as roads, highways and other noise producers.
  2. Trees create shade for great public/private parks and spaces to enjoy playing and relaxing with friends and family.
  3. Trees provide shady venues for walking, running, bicycling and other forms of exercise, encouraging activities that promote better health. Everyone is a kid at heart, enjoy climbing a tree today or swinging on a swing underneath one of its branches.
  4. Trees visually enhance streets and communities, making them more desirable places to visit and live.

(Source: Many of these benefits are used above with permission from www.About.com - Steve Nix's A Tree's Importance and Environmental Benefit-Eight Reasons to Plant a Tree at http://forestry.about.com/od/forestandtreeuses/ss/trees_value.htm )

What are other Impacts?

  1. The developer of a parcel of land has increased costs associated with preserving trees. Although the value of the land and resulting development with trees would be higher - resulting in the costs being recovered in the sale, the up front costs to a developer are higher in terms of time to begin construction and money to hire responsible land clearer's to do the job.
  2. Property/Home owners have fears of tree limbs or trees falling on their homes and prefer to clear trees on their property to avoid this potential.
  3. It can be expensive to have trees removed, but some contractors may remove to sell the timber.

Tracking Progress:

Communities in the Sandhills, as a whole, have not embraced mandatory tree preservation ordinances to protect existing trees, but have adopted landscaping ordinances to promote tree planting within new developments. Trees create a healthier, more beautiful environment, and produce quantifiable results, both to the local community and to the region. The benefits of tree preservation and planting are immediately apparent and are an investment in the future. Enacting a forward-thinking tree policy, together with an enforceable ordinance and creative and informative tree planting programs, is a highly cost-effective strategy to make a tangible impact on the environmental and aesthetic quality of your community.

Example: Sandhills Region Program

How to Implement

Public

  1. Preserve trees on your property and plant a tree(s) to help improve your property value and reduce your energy costs.
  2. Become involved by helping spread the word on the benefits of tree preservation to the general community, local elected officials and serving on local planning, preservation and appearance commissions.

Elected Officials:

Adopt a Tree Preservation Plan and Appropriate Ordinances

  1. Create a tree advisory commission composed of a combination of members appointed by the local governing board, and the local department of planning, engineering or property management.
    • Local Planning or Zoning Boards sometimes oversee the implementation of a tree ordinance as party of the local jurisdictions zoning code.
    • Experts: Urban foresters (on staff if possible/consultant to develop plan if not), arborist, landscape architects, environmental scientists and other volunteers.
    • Others to include:
      • Residential and commercial developers and other business leaders.
      • Concerned citizens groups: arbor society, environmental forums, builders and realtors associations, neighborhood associations, garden clubs.

Sources of Assistance and Ideas for Tree Preservation Ordinances

Regional Planning Agencies that may be able to provided you with technical assistance to organize an effort through strategic planning and ordinance development.