Healthy Trees, Healthy People Newsletter Summer/Fall 2013
Who We Are: The Health Trees, Healthy People program at Portland State University aims to find canopy designs that most effectively improve the public's health. With generous support from the United States Forest Service (USFS) and several participating organizations, an interdisciplinary research team will collaborate through 2014 to quantify the health benefits of the urban forest and their role in addressing air pollution and urban heat across 13 cities of the United States.
Project Updates: In the second year of air quality monitoring, the research team engaged many volunteers to place passive air quality samplers at about 175 locations in the Portland-Vancouver Metro area. The area included Vancouver (Clark County, WA) in the north, to Wilsonville in the south; from Forest Grove in the west to Troutdale in the east. This field campaign collected one of the most detailed descriptions of air quality in the country. Results from the Portland air quality campaign will help to expand our analysis to the other cities in the study.
Summer 2013 geo-spatial and statistical analysis in Portland, Or. The goal of the summer 2013 field campaign was to get increased spatial coverage of NO2 across the Portland-Vancouver Metro area, to get NO coverage for the region, and to get a clearer picture of the contribution of freeways and railroads to urban NO and NO2. These results will help us understand the neighborhood-scale variations of urban air pollutants and the role of trees in potentially mitigating urban NOx. Based on this information, we can begin assessing the human health impacts of urban NOx and trees. Ogawa Sampler
This fall, we will focus on analyzing the data from the summer 2013 field campaign Needs Assessment Survey The HtHp team conducted a survey this summer to learn more about how urban forestry professionals locate and prioritize planting locations. Specifically, we aimed to acquire information on how and in what way an online mapping tool could help urban forestry professionals with this task. From the initial research the team developed a set of 20 survey questions. The survey was organized into the following five areas: 1. participant identification 2. criteria and outcomes for determining tree planting sites 3. program and organizational factors and challenges 4. tools and technology needs 5. participant’s organization ‘demographics’
A special thanks to our volunteers: Christine Kendrick, Linda George, Jacinda
The survey will provide important information that will drive the design,
Mainord, Timea Deakova, Travis Gobbi, Jeremy
purpose and features of the future online mapping tool. Survey results will
Parra, Lynda Byers, Sarita George, Laura Krause, Bennett Battaile, Eileen Lorber, Hannah Davidson, Vivek Shandas, Silas Aho, Desiree Arceneaux and Heather Justus.
tell us what type of criteria and outcomes are important in campaigns, what program and organizational factors may affect planting efforts, and how an online mapping tool might be able to help urban forestry professionals more effectively meet planting goals and challenges.
Coming this winter... Analyze Survey Results Build Online Mapping Tool Continue Outreach
For more information please visit our website www.hthp.weebly.com