The themes for the U.S. Celebration campaign sought to connect the concept of trees and forests to health in the lives of American citizens. Trees make a difference every day and impact our health in several areas. The campaign focused on four primary themes including:
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Clean Air and Water
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Ecosystem Health
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Economic Health
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Community/Personal Health
CLEAN AIR and WATER
AIR
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Trees play a pivotal role in carbon sequestration, which makes them important tools in addressing climate change.
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Trees influence thermal comfort, energy use, and air quality by providing shade, transpiring moisture, and reducing wind speeds.
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The establishment of 100 million mature trees around residences in the United States is said to save about $2 billion annually in reduced energy costs.
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Trees improve air quality by lowering air temperatures, altering emissions from building energy use and other sources, and removing air pollutants through their leaves.
WATER
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There is a strong relationship between forest land and the filtration and provision of clean water.
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Forests provide clean water by holding and filtering water while regulating its flow to downstream locations.
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Trees and soils improve water quality and reduce the need for costly storm water treatment (the removal of harmful substances washed off roads, parking lots, and roofs during rain/snow events), by intercepting and retaining or slowing the flow of precipitation reaching the ground.
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Two-thirds of the clean water supply in the United States is found in stream water from precipitation that is filtered through forests.
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The holding and filtering of water is a particularly important function of private forests as 60 percent of the nation’s runoff flows from private lands.
ECONOMIC HEALTH
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The forest products industry accounts for approximately 5 percent of the total U.S. manufacturing GDP. Industry companies produce about $175 billion in products annually and employ nearly 900,000 men and women, exceeding employment levels in the automotive, chemicals and plastics industries. The industry meets a payroll of approximately $50 billion and is among the top 10 manufacturing sector employers in 48 states. Click below for more information about the industry's economic impact in specific states.
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The study also concludes that every 1,000 acres of private, working forest creates on average 8 jobs, $270,000 in annual payroll, $9,850 in annual state taxes (income and severance taxes only) and $733,000 in annual sales.
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14 million people are employed globally in the forestry sector which generates US$ 468 billion in gross value-added.
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The national average economic contribution per 1,000 acres of private, working forest includes 8 jobs, $270,000 in payroll, $9,850 in state taxes (income and severance taxes only) and $733,000 in annual sales.
COMMUNITY/PERSONAL HEALTH
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Strategic placement of trees around homes, buildings, streets, and parking lots increases shade and evapotranspiration, thereby addressing the heat island effect by lowering summertime air temperatures and surface temperatures of asphalt, concrete, and other impervious areas.
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Properly designed plantings of trees and shrubs can significantly reduce noise. Wide plantings (around 100 ft) of tall dense trees combined with soft ground surfaces can reduce apparent loudness by 50 percent or more.
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Landscaping with trees—in yards, in parks and greenways, along streets, and in shopping centers—can increase property values and commercial benefits.
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The presence of urban trees and forests can make the urban environment a more aesthetic, pleasant, and emotionally satisfying place in which to live, work, and spend leisure time.
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Urban trees also provide numerous health benefits; for example, tree shade reduces ultraviolet radiation and its associated health problems, and hospital patients with window views of trees have been shown to recover faster and with fewer complications than patients without such views.
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Trees and forests make important contributions to the economic vitality and character of a city, neighborhood, or subdivision.
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A stronger sense of community and empowerment to improve neighborhood conditions in inner cities has been attributed to involvement in urban forestry efforts.
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More than 7,000 communities nationwide, serving 177 million residents, have already made a serious commitment to urban forest management.
ECOSYSTEM HEALTH
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Healthy forests are important for maintaining and preserving wildlife habitats.
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Contrary to popular belief, forests in the U.S. are not disappearing. In fact, forest land has remained rather steady for the last century. A few statistics on forests.
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Roughly 1/3 of the total land area of the U.S. is forested (751 million acres).
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Over 75 million acres of forests are reserved for non-timber uses, such as parks and wilderness.
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Over 25% of private forestlands in the U.S. are certified to sustainable certification systems, compared to just 10% world wide.
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Private U.S. landowners plant around 4 million trees every day – that’s 5 trees each year for every person in America.
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Invasive species cost the public approximately $137 billion per year in damage, loss, and control.
Sources:
Sustaining America’s Urban Trees and Forests
Forest-Land Conversion, Ecosystem Services, and Economic Issues for Policy: A Review
Invasive Species Position Paper
Forest Products Industry and the Environment NAFO Alliance's Economic Impact of Private Working Forests
The American Forest & Paper Association
Forest2Market
