Tree donor recognizes the importance of reforestation in Cincinnati; Dayton begins its master plan
Cincinnati Parks will soon begin the largest reforestation effort in a city park in nearly 100 years following a $1.8 million dollar donation by an anonymous Amberley Village resident. What’s involved is the removal of invasive honeysuckle and the planting of trees in the 281-acre French Park, owned by the city, but located in Amberley Village. The Cincinnati Parks Foundation hopes this model can work in other city parks where the tree population has greatly declined.
Why trees are important
Data from the U.S. Census Bureau finds nearly one in four Americans are vulnerable to extreme heat. Many of them are in urban areas where there isn’t enough shade. Disturbingly, we’re losing trees to commercial development, weather events and invasive insect species like the emerald ash borer. Cities are recognizing the need to plant more trees and are implementing urban forestry plans. This life-sustaining strategy is already proving successful in the health of its residents. Will the money and political will be there to expand it?
Trees and land-based plants provide 28 percent of the air we breathe. The rest comes from plants in the ocean. In fact, an acre of trees produces enough oxygen for 18 people to breathe a year.
A trail of destruction left by the emerald ash borer
More than two decades ago the emerald ash borer beetle traveled from Asia to Michigan in wood pallets, leaving hundreds of millions of dead ash trees in its wake. In Cincinnati alone, the beetle killed 10,000 ash trees. Now it’s making its way west.
Assistant Professor, OSU Entomology and OSU Extension, Hamilton County, Joe Boggs points to an area in this Southwest Ohio park that used to be filled with ash trees.
“We started seeing first, you know, open canopy, open areas, but then the opportunity is that we see the parks replanting to provide greater diversity.”
It’s been years since dozens and dozens of ash trees died in this park. But there are still signs of them. This one is surrounded by honeysuckle and grapevine.
”What we’re seeing is a gradual changeover from a forest that had more shade, that shade helped to reduce some problems and I should actually say that honeysuckle can grow in the shade as well but now that we’ve had the opening, we’re starting to see a succession.”
Boggs would like to see more trees. He notices other species that the park has planted like oak and maple. He says this is key because if one is overtaken by a fungus or an insect, others will survive. It’s been years since the American Chestnut and the American Elm succumbed to fungi.
Nationwide, states are concerned about a disappearing urban tree cover. In 2020 Ohio reported in a five-year period (2009-2014) the urban tree cover decreased 10,000 acres a year. And it’s also costing us an estimated $9.3 million a year in benefits associated with air pollution removal. Things like greening up heating and cooling systems.
Cities across Ohio see the importance of tree canopies and are trying to figure out how to preserve existing trees and where to plant new ones.
Dayton is creating a master plan
The City of Dayton is calling on residents, organizations, and community partners to be part of an Advisory Group. Operations Supervisor for the city’s Street Maintenance Bryan Urban says goals include making sure there’s a good plan for maintenance, growing the urban tree canopy and bouncing back from bug infestation.
He told Brick by Brick, “Making sure we’re prepared if we do have another invasive species come in. We dealt with a tornado in 2019, some severe weather outbreaks that caused significant tree loss and making sure we’re prepared and ready if we have an event like that again in the future.”
When the Advisory Group begins to meet in August, it will have data. Crews are counting trees this summer.
Urban explains. “We did an inventory probably around 40 years ago in the 80s but it has not been updated since. So, part of the plan is to do a complete street tree inventory throughout the entire city, so we have accurate information about trees in the public right of way that we maintain.”
A $2 million federal grant will pay for the tree inventory, the master plan, buying the trees, planting them and maintaining them. The master plan is expected to be finished in 2027.
Cincinnati wants trees to cover 40 percent of all neighborhoods
Cincinnati’s community vision, called the Green Cincinnati Plan, is underway. It wants to expand the tree canopy to 40 percent residential, 25 percent mixed-use/industrial and 10 percent Central Business District.
A Cincinnati Parks Foundation study found in 2020 the overall urban tree canopy was 40 percent but it showed the inequity of the tree canopy based on neighborhoods.
See what percent your neighborhood has from this city tree dashboard.
For example, Camp Washington has a 9 percent tree canopy while Columbia Tusculum has 60 percent.
Little by little the city is making progress. For example, volunteers and organizations planted more than one hundred trees two years ago in the West End. President and CEO of the Cincinnati Parks Foundation Jennifer Spieser explains.
“This is shade that won’t be realized for several years, but you do have to start somewhere. And so, having the community involved, engaging with all of the community organizations, that’s important. And, even inviting neighborhoods to be a part of like planting the trees and being part of that one-day big effort, has been wonderful to see.”
Spieser credits Mad Tree Brewing and other partners for this effort and others. In August, the parks will open the application process for residents to get a free tree in priority neighborhoods that fall way below the 40 percent tree canopy coverage.
Without shade people feel the heat more. The Cincinnati Enquirer reported six of the city’s seven poorest neighborhoods are at risk of suffering from extreme heat. They are: Winton Hills, The Villages at Roll Hill, South Cumminsville, Millvale, Lower Price Hill and Avondale.
On August 10, 2020 local organizations and volunteers collected thousands of temperature and humidity data and created a heat map in Cincinnati.
Groundwork Ohio River Valley and Green Umbrella say Lower Price Hill is Ohio’s first climate safe neighborhood. Why? Because of these reasons:
- The neighborhood increased its tree canopy.
- It created misting bus stops and cooling centers.
- It installed an asphalt sealant on top of the pavement or on roofs to reduce heat by 11-13 degrees.
- It created community green spaces, including green parking lots and green roofs.
- It planted more trees.
Brick by Brick’s Hernz Laguerre Jr. reports in this podcast, on Lower Price Hill and the importance of trees there and in other neighborhoods.
In addition, particulate matter sensors installed throughout the neighborhood will allow for a better understanding of air pollution. Lower Price Hill’s initiative could be a model for other neighborhoods. Cincinnati plans to work with Madisonville to increase the tree canopy.
Cities nationwide are planting trees
With a prediction that invasive insects could kill 1.4 million street trees by 2050, cities across America are applying for grants and digging into their budgets to plant more trees.
Detroit’s goal is to double its tree canopy. Since 2022 it has planted more than 52,000 trees. That’s 70 percent of its goal for 75,000 new trees by 2027.
Connecticut’s Governor is proposing spending $500,000 in remaining COVID funds to plant trees in underserved urban neighborhoods.
Seattle is planting 8,000 trees over five years on public and private property and 40,000 in parks and natural areas.
Philadelphia, over the past decade, planted about a thousand, mostly street trees each year, with residents responsible for maintenance. Research found the overall survival rate decreased from 92 percent alive in the first summer to 77 percent by the fourth summer. Mortality rates decreased over time.
The EcoEnclose blog article, “Tree Planting Initiatives: The Good, Bad and the Ugly,” also has international examples, both positive and negative.
Reforestation can take many forms like those of Living Carbon
A California company, Living Carbon says it is “Rebalancing the carbon cycle by using the power of plants.” CEO Maddie Hall told Brick by Brick “It became very clear to me that humans were degrading land very quickly. About 75 percent of all acres of land have been degraded due to human activity and I wanted to figure out a way where we could use different market mechanisms to put those lands back to work.”
Here’s how the idea to reforest land formerly used for mining and abandoned agricultural sites, works according to Living Carbon Chief Product Officer Rahul Mishra.
“We use a lot of technology and different software that we have at our disposal to identify specific sites that might be good matches for our solutions. And then we go out and identify those landowners, engage with them, see if they’re even interested in what we have to offer.”
Interested landowners lease their land over 40 years. Living Carbon also works with local partners like Appalachia Ohio Alliance and its executive director Steve Fleegal.
He says, “The thing with Living Carbon is for us, is that their interests align very closely with our interests as far as reforestation and taking care of these forests and providing high quality forests over time. They have funds available that can replant these forests. Planting trees is very expensive and a nonprofit that’s focused on land conservation; we try and minimize the money that goes to things such as reforestation.”
For Living Carbon, the money comes from-Microsoft, Google, Meta and McKinsey & Company, through Symbiosis Coalition, which contracted carbon removal as customers from Living Carbon.
Hall says the company is limited by land records that can often bog the process down. Also, she says you can only plant trees in the spring and fall, so it takes time. None the less, the company has already planted over 2 million trees across 2,500 acres in multiple states, including nine counties in Ohio. The trees include American sycamore, a variety of oak, red maples and honey locusts.
Limitations to increasing the urban canopy
Limitations for tree planting come down to cost, political will and the proper training if residents are expected to care for them. Here’s one reason why funding and political will is important. Monetary constraints and limitations in biotechnology slowed early recovery efforts for Chestnut blight and Dutch elm disease. Entomologist Joe Boggs says the U.S. Department of Agriculture does have a rigorous early detection and rapid response now to try and find invasive insects early.
“Tree Planting Initiatives: The Good, Bad and the Ugly”, the authors say tree planting must be part of a broader effort to mitigate negative impacts and promote positive improvements. They say the goal should be restoring forests and regions to their natural state, not just increasing the tree cover.
They recommend looking at intentions vs outcomes, avoiding greenwashing (making an environmental practice appear more beneficial than it actually is), quality over quantity, planting native species, and doing research before beginning tree planting programs.
Looking to the future
According to the 2021 government report “Climate Change and Urban Forests,” the average percent tree cover in urban areas is projected to decline from 39.4 percent in 2010 to 32.8 percent in 2060.
Researchers suggest, given the decline, on average about 26 million additional new trees will need to be planted.
Trees take years to mature. Cincinnati says it aims to lead the country in the battle against climate change by becoming one of the first US Cities to produce biochar.
Cincinnati and Hamilton County Parks have a plan to collect wood waste and burn it in a kiln without oxygen. This does two things: removes carbon from the atmosphere and supports the health of new plantings through this soil additive. It can jump start the growing process.
There is some hope when it comes to preserving the ash tree. Ecologists with the U.S. Forest Service in Delaware, Ohio are monitoring new shoots called ash buses. They say the blue ash does not seem to attract the emerald ash borer as much as other varieties of ash. And the U.S. Forest Service is working on a crossbreeding project that could provide some resistance to the ash borer. Entomologist Joe Boggs is on the lookout for surviving ash trees and has seen one in a Mason park.
Ann Thompson – Host, Producer
Over the last thirty years in Cincinnati, Ann Thompson has brought a wealth of knowledge and expertise to her reporting. She has reported and anchored for WVXU, WKRC, WCKY, WHIO-TV and Metro Networks and freelanced for NPR, CBS and ABC Radio. Her work has been recognized by the Associated Press and she has won awards from the Association of Women in Communications and the Alliance for Women in Media. She is a former News Director and Operations Manager. Ann has reported from India, Japan, South Korea, Germany and Belgium as part of fellowships. Ann thinks of the Brick by Brick project as “journalism for good.” She serves as host and producer. Ann lives in Anderson Township with her husband Scott. They have two boys. Jake graduated from the Air Force Academy in 2022 and Kurt attends West Point.
