Tennessee's Urban Forests Valued in the Billions

The authors of Urban Forests of Tennessee, 2009 found there are 284 million trees in urban areas in the state, with canopies covering 33.7 percent of 1.6 million acres of urban area. Those urban forests provide an estimated $204 million per year in pollution removal and $66 million per year in energy savings. The study is the first of its kind in Tennessee.

“This report, for the first time, puts a face on the urban forest resource and what it means to the state in terms of economic and environmental value,” said Steven Scott, Tennessee State Forester and head of the Tennessee Division of Forestry, which collected the data for the report. “Perhaps the most significant finding is the immediate impact of urban trees on the use of energy, the savings we get as a result of shade near homes, businesses and industrial areas.”

David Nowak, Northern Research Station project leader and research forester, led the pilot study, which sampled trees in all the state's urban area and analyzed their value using a model developed by the Forest Service.

“Urban forests make our cities healthier, more vibrant places to live,” said Nowak. “They provide healthy outdoor spaces for our kids, they clean our air and water, and — as this study shows — they provide tremendous economic benefits. We must continue our work to protect these critical natural resources.”

There are more than 100 million acres of urban forest across the U.S., but a recent study shows that many are in decline.

The Tennessee report includes an extensive assessment of urban forest health, providing information about present damage and potential risks. In addition to nonnative invasive plants, Tennessee urban forests face risks from exotic pests that include the recently discovered thousand cankers disease, which impacts black walnut; hemlock woolly adelgid, which kills eastern and Carolina hemlocks; the Asian longhorned beetle, which kills a wide range of hardwood species; and the emerald ash borer, which decimates ash trees. This last insect was recently documented in East Tennessee.

The Forest Service Inventory and Analysis and Community Forestry Programs partnered with Tennessee Division of Forestry and researchers from the Forest Service Northern Research Station and SRS on the project.
To access the full report in PDF format: http://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/pubs/40246.

To request this publication by mail, send your name and complete mailing address, with report title, author, and publication number (GTR-SRS-149) to: pubrequest@fs.fed.us

Media Contact

Zoë Hoyle EurekAlert!

More Information:

http://www.fs.fed.us

All latest news from the category: Agricultural and Forestry Science

Back to home

Comments (0)

Write a comment

Newest articles

New yttrium-hydrogen compounds discovered

Researchers at the University of Bayreuth have made a significant scientific breakthrough by discovering new yttrium-hydrogen compounds having serious implications for the research on high-pressure superconductivity. High-pressure superconductivity refers to…

New AI model detects ninety percent of lymphatic cancer cases

Medical image analysis using AI has developed rapidly in recent years. Now, one of the largest studies to date has been carried out using AI-assisted image analysis of lymphoma, cancer…

UTA preps giant particle detectors for neutrino project

Excavation of caverns part of Fermilab’s Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment. With excavation work complete at the site where four gigantic particle detectors for the international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) will be…

Partners & Sponsors