Page 24 - Georgia Forestry - Issue 4 - Fall 2023

“Trees are the
number-one
way to mitigate
heat islands
and the rising
temperatures
in cities.”
— Greg Levine, Executive Director, Trees Atlanta
trees,” Levine said. “What you do in your downtown sets the precedent for the areas around it. And we’ve already noticed that the neighborhoods adjacent to it also have poor tree coverage compared to the neigh- borhoods further out. So, improving the can- opy in downtown will start improving the canopies in those adjacent neighborhoods.”
Building the Perfect
Urban Forest
Planting trees and expanding canopy coverage may sound simple enough, but creating a sustainable urban forest requires a different approach.
“There are two ways that you can create a sustainable urban forest, and they both have to go hand in hand,” Rinker said. “There’s protecting the trees we have and making sure that existing trees are saved from being cut down or disease or pests. So, there’s maintaining and caring for the trees that exist, but also planting the next generation of trees.”
Cities’ impervious surfaces, including concrete, make for a challenging envi- ronment for trees to thrive and survive. Planting trees requires cutting through concrete and working around obstacles, such as fiber optic cables and utility lines.
Despite the challenge, Atlanta, for example, still has roughly 47% tree coverage citywide, but it is much lower — roughly 6% — in Downtown Atlanta. Trees Atlanta wants to increase the canopy in Downtown Atlanta to 20%.
Increasing coverage in dense, urban areas has benefits other than aesthetics, including health benefits for residents. Trees release moisture, cooling the air as well, Levine said, which helps to cool cities.
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