Design
How Many Trees is Enough?
When it comes to reducing pollution, the key isn't the number of trees you plant but where you plant them
Trees clean the air, which is increasingly important in urban areas where high rates of asthma and other health conditions are rampant. They also reduce the urban heat island effect, and of course add to the aesthetic beauty of streets and neighborhoods. For all these reasons, tree planting programs are easy sells for local politicians. New York City, for example, is half way to its goal of planting one million trees. Mayor Michael Bloomberg launched the program in 2007, along with actress Bette Midler and her nonprofit, the New York Restoration Project.
“To walk under the branches of a tree that you have planted connects you to the roots of our past and the aspirations of our future,” Midler noted poetically at the project's launch.