The Rutherford Shade Tree Committee Presents
Art Contest for 2010

"SAVING ENERGY, SAVING MONEY"

Open to all Rutherford Students

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THIS YEAR'S FOCUS IS ON ENERGY EFFICIENCY, AND THE GREAT IMPORTANCE TREES HAVE IN CONSERVING ENERGY RESOURCES AND MONEY. STUDENTS ARE TO DRAW OR PHOTOGRAPH THEIR FAVORITE TREE IN TOWN THAT BEST SHOWS HOW TREES CAN SAVE ENERGY AND HELP THE ENVIRONMENT. THINK ABOUT THE IMPORTANT ROLE TREES PLAY IN CITIES AND TOWNS, AND THE DIFFERENT WAYS TREES CAN BENEFIT YOUR COMMUNITY, INCLUDING:

• Trees clean the air by filtering pollutants through their leaves, and take in carbon dioxide to produce oxygen.
• Trees reduce floods and soil erosion by absorbing rain water. They also filter water runoff, reducing water pollution into rivers and storm drains.
• Trees cool the air through water evaporating from the leaves and by direct shade. Homes shaded by properly placed trees use up to 25% less energy for cooling and heating, and save up to $250 in energy costs each year.
• Planted as windbreak barriers, trees can protect homes from hot or cold winds, and provide an energy savings of up to 30%.
• Trees shading paved areas, like driveways and asphalt parking lots, greatly decrease surface heat. In the summer, a city with trees shading paved areas can be 12 degrees cooler than one without trees.

ALL ENTRIES WILL GO INTO THE 2010 BOOK OF TREES FOR PERMANENT DISPLAY AT THE RUTHERFORD LIBRARY. WINNERS WILL BE ANNOUNCED AND PRESENTED WITH COMMENDATION AWARDS AT AN UPCOMING BOROUGH COUNCIL MEETING IN THE FALL. ALL ENTRIES SHOULD BE SUBMITTED TO TEACHERS BY JUNE 15.

Art Contest 2010

FURTHER INFORMATION

One thing people don’t always realize, though, is that trees are vital for converting and producing energy for human use, as well as conserving energy when properly placed in the landscape. Energy is defined as the ability to do work; it powers everything in nature. Energy warms and cools our homes, fuels our cars, powers our TVs and DVD players, and runs our manufacturing plants. It takes energy for us to walk, talk, digest our food, and even breath.

Many different sources of energy exist. Some sources are nonrenewable, such as fossil fuels like coal, oil, and natural gas. Once the supply of a fossil fuel has been depleted, it is gone forever. Some energy sources are renewable – like wind, sun, water, trees, and plants. These are energy sources that can be replenished through natural processes or careful management. Energy that comes from plants, like trees, is considered biomass. It is renewable as long as new trees or plants are planted. Most people living in cities and towns don’t have enough available land to grow their own individual biomass to produce energy. Biomass is a homegrown source of energy. Wood, animal waste, crops, and even garbage can be used as a biomass energy source.

However, by properly locating and planting a few trees around their home, people can conserve energy, lessen the use of nonrenewable fossil fuels, save money, increase property value, and help the environment. Proper landscaping with trees and shrubs is often the best long-term investment for reducing heating and cooling costs while also bringing improvements to the home and the community. Planting trees and maintaining the urban forest can have a significant impact on conserving energy resources and money.

What is "the Urban Forest"?

Trees that grow in cities and towns are called “the urban forest”. Trees are major capital assets in cities across the United States. Just as streets, sidewalks, public buildings and recreational facilities are a part of a community's infrastructure, so are publicly owned trees. Trees -- and, collectively, the urban forest -- are important assets that require care and maintenance the same as other public property. Trees are on the job 24 hours every day working for all of us to improve our environment and quality of life. Life is hard for these trees because of limited space, water, nutrients and extensive pavement covering the soil all around them. Many trees get cut down because their roots crack the pavement as they seek water and nutrients. The urban forest (and its many benefits) will disappear unless people stand up for these trees and work to plant, maintain and look after them. Conscious urban forestry needs to become integrated into the agenda of all city governments and city planners.

Why save trees?

Trees clean the air.

Tree foliage works as a natural air filter of particulate matter such as dust, micro sized metals and pollutants such as ozone, nitrogen oxides, ammonia and sulfur dioxides. Trees take in carbon dioxide and produce oxygen. Combined with the cooling effect of trees, these processes can have a significant impact on reducing smog and overall air pollution.

Trees improve water quality.

A healthy urban forest can have a strong influence on our region’s water quality. Tree canopies and root systems slow and reduce storm water runoff, flooding and erosion. Trees also help filter water runoff reducing potential sources of water pollution into our rivers and storm drains.

Trees save energy.

Trees cool the air naturally in two ways: through water evaporating from the leaves and direct shade. Homes shaded by trees need less energy for cooling which means lower monthly utility bills in summer and a reduced need for utilities to increase power generation to meet peak load demand.

Trees raise real estate value.

Shaded neighborhoods and well-landscaped yards have a positive economic influence on real estate values, timeliness of house sales and neighborhood desirability. Studies report that landscaping speeds the sale of a home by four to six weeks.

Trees are good for business.

A series of studies has investigated associations between the urban forest and people’s response to shopping settings. Scientific results suggest that having trees in the business district streetscape is an important investment for a business community. The presence of a quality urban forest positively influences shoppers' perceptions, and probably, their behavior.

Trees help stop inner city violence.

A scientific study by the Human-Environment Research Lab has demonstrated that contact with nature may actually help reduce the incidence of aggression and violence in inner-city neighborhoods. According to this study, levels of aggression were significantly lower among people who had some kind of nature outside of their apartments versus those who didn't. The impact of the physical environment on human aggression has been well-established - crowding, high temperatures, and noise have all been linked to violent behavior. Some scientists believe that it's because people living under these conditions suffer from something called chronic mental fatigue, which can make them inattentive, irritable, and impulsive - all of which can be linked to aggressive behavior. Exposure to green spaces, it has been shown, can mitigate the harmful effects of chronic mental fatigue, reducing aggressive behavior in the process.

What is the value of a tree?

A tree can return up to $2.70 for each $1 on community investment…that’s a 270% return (based on a 40 year average life span according to Center for Urban Forest Research, Pacific Southwest Research Station, U.S. Forest Service, Davis, CA)

• Nationally, the 60 million street trees have an average value of $525 per tree.
• A tree, over a 50-year period, will generate $31,250 worth of oxygen, provide $62,000 worth of air pollution control, and recycle $37,500 worth of water.
• Four trees planted around a home can save up to 30% on summer cooling costs.
• One million trees save $10 million a year in energy costs.
• Forty trees remove 80 pounds of air pollutants annually.
• Four million trees can save $20 million in air pollution clean-up.
• Four hundred trees capture 140,000 gallons of rainwater annually.
• Four million trees save $14 million dollars in annual storm water runoff costs.
• Trees in commercial parking lots induce shoppers to spend 11% more for goods & services.
• Shade from trees could save up to $175 per year (per structure) in air conditioning costs.
• The net cooling effect of a young, healthy tree is equivalent to ten room-size air conditioners operating 20 hours a day.
• Trees can boost the market value of your home by an average of 6 or 7%
• Healthy, mature trees add an average of 10% to a property's value.
• Landscaping, especially with trees, can increase property values as much as 20%.

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INTERESTING FACTS

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in Milwaukee, where urban trees cover about 16 per cent of the city, trees reduce stormwater flows by 22 per cent. The city saves an estimated $15.4 million by avoiding the construction of additional retention capacity. In Austin, heavy rains make stormwater management a priority issue. Austin's tree canopy, almost twice that of Milwaukee's at approximately 30 per cent, reduced stormwater flow by 28 per cent, providing the city with an estimated $122 million in savings (MacDonald, 1996).

Hurricane Hugo devastated Charleston, South Carolina, in 1989. Little was spared: homes, churches, power lines, and the urban forest were all heavily damaged or destroyed. 200 residents were asked to identify the single most special physical feature of Charleston damaged or destroyed by Hugo. People identified the urban forest more often than any other aspect of Charleston ( i.e. more than churches, historic buildings or homes) (Vigo, 1990).

Computer simulations using standard building and tree configurations for cities across the U.S. indicate that shade from a single well-placed, mature tree (about 25-ft crown diameter) reduces annual air conditioning use 2 to 8 percent and peak cooling demand 2 to 10 percent (Simpson and McPherson, 1996). Several investigators have documented dramatic (30 - 50%) differences in coolingenergy use between houses on landscaped and un-landscaped sites (Akbari, 2002).

A major study of Chicago estimated that trees in that city annually removed 15 metric tons of carbon monoxide, 84 tons of sulfur dioxide, 89 tons of nitrogen dioxide, 191 tons of ozone, and 212 tons of small particulates. The estimated value of this pollution removal was $1 million for trees in the city itself and $9.2 million for the entire Chicago area (Nowak, 1994).

The ambient air temperature difference between an urban heat island and a vegetated area can be as much as 2-10 degrees F. The temperature measured directly above man-made surfaces can be as much as 25 degrees F hotter than the air temperature beneath a forested area (Akbari et. al., 1992; Simpson and McPherson, 1996).

Using the city of Davis, California as a model, existing data on the benefits and costs of municipal trees were applied to the results of a sample inventory of the city’s public and private street trees. Results indicate that Davis maintained nearly 24,000 public street trees that provided $1.2 million in net annual environmental and property value benefits, with a benefit–cost ratio of 3.8:1 (Maco and McPherson, 2003).

One acre of forest absorbs six tons of carbon dioxide and puts out four tons of oxygen. This is enough to meet the annual needs of 18 people. - U.S. Department of Agriculture

There are about 60 to 200 million spaces along our city streets where trees could be planted. This translates to the potential to absorb 33 million more tons of CO2 every year, and saving $4 billion in energy costs. - National Wildlife Federation

Trees properly placed around buildings can reduce air conditioning needs by 30 % and can save 20 - 50 % in energy used for heating. - USDA Forest Service

Trees can be a stimulus to economic development, attracting new business and tourism. Commercial retail areas are more attractive to shoppers, apartments rent more quickly, tenants stay longer, and space in a wooded setting is more valuable to sell or rent. - The National Arbor Day Foundation

The planting of trees means improved water quality, resulting in less runoff and erosion. This allows more recharging of the ground water supply. Wooded areas help prevent the transport of sediment and chemicals into streams. - USDA Forest Service

In laboratory research, visual exposure to settings with trees has produced significant recovery from stress within five minutes, as indicated by changes in blood pressure and muscle tension. - Dr. Roger S. Ulrich Texas A&M University

A tree can grow to manufacture five pounds of pure oxygen per day, consume carbon dioxide to fight the "greenhouse effect" that threatens our survival, and provide the cooling equivalent of ten room-size air conditioning units.

sources: http://www.sactree.com
http://www.cfr.washington.edu/research.envmind/consumer.html http://www.treelink.org
http://www.arborday.org/trees/benefits.cfm
Dr. Lowell Ponte
USDA Forest Service
Management Information Services/ICMA
U.S. Department of Agriculture