by TRC_Admin | Jun 5, 2023 | Environmental, Trees
Graphic: Climate Central analysis of U.S. Forest Service data; Map: Simran Parwani/Axios
“From stormwater runoff prevention to reducing the impacts of extreme heat, tree canopies provide a host of health and climate resiliency benefits for those in urban landscapes.
Why it matters: Not all trees are distributed equally. A new Climate Central analysis reveals which localities nationwide benefit most from the boons of urban forests.
How it works: Urban tree coverage helps reduce the impacts of extreme heat, prevents stormwater runoff, mitigates air pollution exposure and can even sequester carbon, per the analysis.
A tree’s leaves can absorb pollutants like ozone and nitrogen dioxide, the report noted.
What they found: The U.S. cities with the most air pollution absorbed by trees are Presque Isle, Maine; Eugene, Ore.; Eureka, Calif.; Bangor, Maine; and Duluth, Minn., according to Climate Central data shared with Axios.
By contrast, the cities with the most intense urban heat islands are Houston, New Orleans, Newark, New York City and San Francisco. Zoom in: Only about 18% of Houston is currently covered by tree canopy, with a roughly 14% ‘tree cover discrepancy’ between high and low-income neighborhoods, reports the Houston Chronicle.
What they’re saying: Jaime González, Community and Equitable Conservation Programs Director for the Nature Conservancy’s Texas Chapter, tells Axios the city of Houston is working to meet an ‘ambitious’ goal of 4.6 million trees planted by the year 2030.
González’ team just partnered with the Texas A&M Forest Service to map available planting zones in Gulfton, Texas — a ‘nature-deprived’ neighborhood in Houston that’s home to a largely immigrant and lower-income community. They estimated 804 trees could be placed there to increase tree canopy cover.
‘You just walk around the neighborhood, there are long, long stretches where there are no trees and it’s just hot pavement,’ says González. (In 2020, parts of Gulfton were 17 degrees hotter in the afternoon than the city’s coolest neighborhood, per the Washington Post.)
‘If there’s a very large pot of money coming down, there needs to be equitable and empowering ways to get the money to the communities that are going to be served.’
State of play: The Inflation Reduction Act provided $1.5 billion in funding over 10 years to the U.S. Forest Service’s Urban and Community Forestry Program.
Beattra Wilson, assistant director for cooperative forestry at the U.S. Forest Service, tells Axios in an email that the IRA funding will allow them to ‘reach more communities to help plant, replace, and maintain millions of trees.’
Wilson also notes the agency’s focus on ‘equity considerations’ and prioritizing ‘underserved communities’ with the funding, which will be allotted through grants through 2031. Zoom out: Historic redlining, a discriminatory housing practice, has led to higher proportions of racial minorities living in areas with less tree canopy cover, which can exacerbate health problems, per a 2021 study…
Yes, but: “Tree for tree, [urban] trees are potentially doing a lot. But it’s not going to offset the fossil fuels which are also concentrated in cities,” says Lucy Hutyra, professor of earth and environment at Boston University.
From planting costs to maintenance, she notes the costliness of urban trees, as well as the different growing environments city to city, which produces varying ecosystem services and benefits. The bottom line: “Trees are part of the solution,” Hutyra tells Axios. “But they are not the whole solution.””
— Ayurella Horn-Muller with contribution by Simran Parwani, Axios
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by TRC_Admin | Jun 5, 2023 | Environmental, Litter, Trash
Photos: Beach Junki, Fernandina Beach, Florida
“The Washed Up Project
The purpose of the Washed Up Project is to collect marine debris and create ocean art that will bring awareness to the plastic pollution washing up.
Amelia the Sea Turtle
Our first Washed Up Project is the Amelia Sea Turtle created by local talented artist, Sandra Baker-Hinton. Amelia was contructed from washed up sunglasses, bottle caps, plastic pieces. Amelia is currently displayed at Seaside. You can find Sandra at Clay Times Art Center in downtown Fernandina Beach.
Shrimpers Paradise
The second project, Shrimpers Paradise, is also constructed from marine debris. It was created by a young talented artist, Kazuki Roca. The items used to construct the shrimp are shotgun shells, and fishing lures. Shrimpers Paradise is currently displayed at Main Beach in Fernandina, next to the Beach Toy Borrow Box.”
— Beach Junki, Fernandina Beach, Florida
Visit Beach Junki here
by TRC_Admin | Apr 27, 2023 | Environmental, Nature
Photo: Florida Wildlife Corridor Foundation Operation Connect Page
“The O2O Expedition featured three veterans from three branches of military who undertook a 57-mile exploration of the Florida Wildlife Corridor from the Ocala to the Osceola National Forests. The core of the Expedition involved a 4-day journey which included paddling a section of the Ocklawaha River as well as biking/hiking segments through the Florida National Scenic Trail. The Expedition highlights the health and wellness opportunities of the Corridor as well as the importance of working lands, state lands and military installations to statewide connectivity…
O2O Wildlife Corridor is a 100 mile long, 1.6-million-acre landscape of public and private lands that connect the Ocala and Osceola National Forests.”
— Florida Wildlife Corridor Foundation
Read more here
by TRC_Admin | Apr 27, 2023 | Environmental, Nature, Placemaking, Planting, Trees
Photo: Kim Frisbie
Photo: Kim Frisbie
“I was fortunate to have a recent tour of the wonderful Phipps Ocean Park. This exciting project will be a tremendous gift to the residents of Palm Beach.
The Preservation Foundation’s plans for the renovation of this 18-acre area include educational facilities and native landscaping to promote and restore environmental sustainability. In 1948, the Phipps family donated 1,200 feet of ocean frontage for use as a public park to ensure the land remained open in perpetuity. The park has not been well-managed in the intervening 75 years, is grossly underutilized, and currently consists of just some random paths and picnic tables with a few cabanas. Plantings are infested with invasive species including Brazilian pepper and melaleuca, and it is not an inviting area to visit.
Enter the Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach in 2019 with a master plan for the park, incorporating educational facilities with native landscaping to restore, protect and preserve the coastal and intracoastal vegetation. Unique, diverse, and extraordinary spaces will inspire visitors to understand and appreciate the importance of environmental sustainability. With Raymond Jungles’ vision to promote the park as a nature preserve, it will be planted with only native species, capturing the original spirit of the land as the Phipps family knew it. Visitors will gain exceptional education and information on plants they can add to their own landscapes, seeing how different species grow on coastal and inland areas…
Phipps Ocean Park will also embody an important coastal restoration center dedicated to growing native species for the park and for the Town of Palm Beach. This nursery/propagation facility will provide hands-on activities for children and adults for restoring coastal ecosystems throughout the island or in their own landscapes…
The historic Little Red Schoolhouse, built in 1886 and recently restored to its one-room glory, will interact with a new outdoor classroom sponsored by the Garden Club of Palm Beach to provide additional educational opportunities for children in an engaging native setting…”
— Kim Frisbie, Palm Beach Daily News
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by TRC_Admin | Mar 2, 2023 | Codes, Environmental, Landscaping, Planting
Photo: Johner Images, Getty Images on Martha Stewart
“Also called meadow lawns, this landscaping technique requires little to no maintenance or resources to thrive.
What Is a Tapestry Lawn? Best Plants How to Plant Mowing and Maintenance Zones and Regions Pros and Cons
A tapestry lawn is just one term for this natural landscape trend: Sometimes called a matrix garden, meadow lawn, prairie lawn, or patchwork lawn, this turf technique involves removing traditional grass and replacing it with a mix of native plants and flowers of varying heights, sizes, and textures for both aesthetic and ecological benefits.
As its name implies, a tapestry lawn consists of a mix of colorful plants that create a living piece of art in your yard. ‘They are alternatives to traditional grass lawns and are more colorful, visually intriguing, eco-friendly, and low-maintenance,’ says Jeremy Yamaguchi, the CEO of Lawn Love. ‘These lawns are essentially an interlaced spread of low-lying plants and flowers.’
While most homeowners opt for low landscapes, a tapestry lawn can vary in height; low-lying options clock in between 6 to 10 inches, but your site can be scaled to up to 48 inches depending on your turf and goals, says Benjamin Vogt, the owner of Monarch Gardens LLC. ‘In general, such a landscape will include plants that move about, fill gaps, and generally show a new arrangement season to season and year to year—just as they would in wilder nature,’ he says, adding that the main difference between your lawn and the wild is that the plants are purposefully selected to work on this site for aesthetic, practical, and environmental reasons.
The Best Plants for Tapestry Lawns
Tapestry lawns aren’t one size (or zone) fits all. Ultimately, the plants you choose when working within this landscape trend should be native to your area, non-invasive, and low-water. ‘You also want your selection of plants to all have similar water, light, [and] humidity requirements,’ Yamaguchi says…
Tapestry Lawn Regions and Zones
All the experts we spoke to agree that the secret to creating a successful tapestry lawn is to always choose plants native to your region. ‘The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map has universal codes that will help you pick the right ground cover plants for your [region],’ Bucur says, noting that native plants are easier to care for and have a low likelihood of wilting or dying.
Pro: Environmental Impact
Tapestry lawns are far more eco-friendly than grass lawns, says Vogt. ‘Just the increase in flowers alone is a boon to adult pollinators, while the diversity of plant species provides more food for their young (think caterpillars that eat foliage and become butterflies and moths),’ he says. ‘The increased density and diversity also is much better for healing soils, capturing and storing carbon, cleaning and cooling the air, reducing stormwater runoff, and generally providing habitat (and an aesthetic show) all year round—yes, even in winter.’
Con: Foot Traffic
While there are certainly perks to this low-maintenance approach to lawn care, Yamaguchi notes that there’s a pretty obvious con to surrendering turf for tapestry: ‘The only major downside to this lawn type is that it is not well built for much foot traffic,’ he says.”
— Lauren Wellbank, Freelance Writer for Martha Stewart
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by TRC_Admin | Jan 23, 2023 | Environmental, Highway Beautification, Litter, Trash
Photo: Dirk Shadd, Tampa Times
“Pockets of open space dot Gandy Beach. Each one is an opening to the blue waters of Tampa Bay, canopied by billowing mangroves. It’s picturesque — just don’t look too close.
If you did, then you might see the beer can peeking out of the sand like a burrowed crab. Or the plastic bag swaying from a mangrove branch.
The empty gallon of water sitting squarely near the shore? Well, that’s a little harder to miss.
But the Florida Department of Transportation is hoping a new project will stop people from littering and parking in the mangroves at Gandy Beach in St. Petersburg. The agency is spending about $70,000 to install bollards — large wooden posts — in front of mangroves lining the beach, Kristen Carson, a spokesperson for the department, said in an email Wednesday.
Gandy Beach averages about 8,000 pounds of trash a day that’s picked up as both litter and from trash cans, according to Carson.
Dana Paganelli, a frequent visitor to the beach, says she’s happy about the bollards. She floated near the shore Wednesday in a pastel-colored pool float. Usually, she said, she’ll bring her own bag and fill it with the garbage she finds at the beach and throw it out later…
The Florida Department of Transportation began installing the posts last week, and the entire project will wrap up in about two weeks. Carson said the agency expects to install about 880 posts.
After the bollards are installed and cars can no longer reach the shore, the agency’s maintenance contractor will begin planting small mangroves in the open areas where the plant could not grow previously due to car traffic…”
— Michaela Mulligan, Times
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