Dayton "Dirt" Green Blog - March 2011

On October 20, 2010, the 5th annual Why Trees Matter Forum was held at the campus of the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC) in Wooster, Ohio.

The key note address was given by Dr. Dave Nowak of the USDA Forest Service Northern Research Station and Syracuse University. The forum was held despite the devastation caused at OARDC and the adjoining Secrest Arboretum by a tornado strike on September 16, 2010. Dr. Nowak in his address as reported in the January issue of the Ohio Nursery and Landscape Association publication Buckeye magazine, gave a rundown on 10 important facts about How Trees Matter. Of the top ten list, two of the benefits were water quality improvements and cooler temperatures especially in urban areas.

The two above benefits he listed as number four and number one respectively. The water quality improvement resulting from trees while important to the entire county is of particular importance to the City of Akron, Ohio. The city is under orders from the U.S. EPA to significantly reduce its sewage overflows to the Cuyahoga River in periods of heavy rains due to storm and sewage sewer combinations.

In order to meet EPA demands for water quality, the remedies will cost city taxpayers hundreds of million of dollars in order to construct separate storm water sewers and massive retention basins to hold sewage water so that it can be treated.

While tree plantings and measures to control water runoff from business and residential properties will not solve the problem alone, they are two important weapons in the arsenal to improve the quality of storm water runoff before it enters waterways.

At the October 20th forum at OARDC, Donna Murphy of the USDA Forest Service stated that the U.S. EPA indicates it would require $2.2 trillion to retrofit the country’s water infrastructure employing concrete and pipe alone.

In northeast Ohio, improvements along the banks of the grossly polluted Little Cuyahoga River include the establishment of riparian borders and the planting of trees.

Rain gardens and storm water storage are gaining popularity among homeowners which will definitely help if these techniques could be greatly expanded.

The cooling effect of trees is well known as street trees tend to reduce temperatures of Urban heat islands caused by the “blacktop jungle”.

In Akron, the loss of the great American Elms and their cooling effect in the 1950's and 60's along city streets is still fresh in the minds of many older residents. Properly placed shade trees on the south and southwest sides of a house will decrease cooling costs resulting in less electricity use and the burning of fossil fuels.

Jim Chatfield of the Ohio State Extension Service has been extensively involved in the Why Trees Matter program. According to Mr. Chatfield, when he and others attended a tree conference in Philadelphia, it was obvious that the city for years has had a love affair with trees.

In the book John Adams by David McCullough, the author writes about John Adam’s amazement upon arriving in Philadelphia as a representative from Massachusetts to the convention of the First Continental Congress in 1774. Adam’s noted that Philadelphia was the finest city he ever saw remarking on the city’s tree lined streets.

A renaissance of “tree fever” in the United States like that of Philadelphia wouldn’t be a bad thing.

Tom