The Importance of Trees

Located on the property of Lakeview Presbyterian Church, the majestic Abe Winters Live Oak supports children learning to climb trees through Pathfi nder Outdoor Education. Abe Winters is considered the grandfather of recreational tree climbing.

Trees Have Never Been More Important

BY CATHY HARRELSON

Trees are leafing out across much of St. Petersburg, providing one obvious transition from our relatively mild winter to a beautiful spring. It’s easy to take this annual process for granted, but trees provide multiple layers of value to our city. And we certainly miss them when they’re gone.

Communities around the country are engaged in Urban Reforestation, from the urban core through yards, neighborhoods, parks, and streets. Trees have never been more important. Rising temperatures, rainfall changes and the escalating impacts of climate change point to planting and growing trees as a low-tech way to cool our homes, reduce our energy use, and improve our health. Neighborhoods with a robust canopy have higher property values, and trees contribute to our overall sense of well-being.

The City of St. Petersburg has been committed to increasing the canopy in our parks, aided by Parks and Recreation’s Gift Tree Program. Gift trees are available in varied species and locations, for birthdays, holidays, or as a memorial. Additionally, the City has begun focused tree plantings along street corridors. Corridor plantings to date include 18th Avenue South and most recently, 30th Avenue North, with more in the planning stages.

A comprehensive tree canopy study is also underway, enabling us to work from a clear map to plant and grow trees where they are most needed, to avoid places where they may cause trouble, and to ensure species diversity. In fact, success depends on the concept of “right tree, right place,” the basis for tree planting programs from Pinellas County Extension Service to SWFWMD (Southwest Florida Water Management District).

Planning Ahead

But like it or not, St. Petersburg's popularity and growth as "the" place to live in Florida has wreaked some havoc on our tree canopy. In spite of the City’s efforts, development, redevelopment and unscrupulous landscape practices continue to create a net loss of trees. Likewise, recent state legislative actions have removed tree ordinance protection mechanisms from the toolbox of cities and counties statewide.

To help combat these tree-reduction factors, the new Urban Forestry Committee of the City Beautiful Commission (CBC) will be focusing on building awareness and common cause to protect the trees we have and regrow our canopy. The aim is to engage citizens, neighborhoods and community organizations, alongside planners, public works, police, and developers to personally and strategically invest in the future of our urban forest. As the longest-standing city committee, CBC is moving forward to bring the public into the important work of growing the city’s precious greenscape.

Benefits of Trees

Trees are the ultimate multitaskers. When we choose trees as a low-cost strategy to fi ght the impacts of climate change, the benefi ts go well beyond carbon reduction. The urban heat island eff ect known as UHI, is a very real phenomenon occurring in our heavily built-out city and county. UHI is the result of excessive paving, higher energy use and the corresponding generation of waste heat that occurs in urban areas where air temperatures are higher than their rural surroundings.

Projections for an increase in the number of continuous daytime temperatures over 90 degrees provide some urgency to our plans to expand the canopy. And the benefi ts of trees only grow from there. Reforestation also provides a green infrastructure that improves water quality by minimizing stormwater runoff , reducing fl ooding and lowering water fi ltration costs. Trees also support the local birds and other wildlife we love – wildlife that relies on trees for food, shelter, nesting and water.

Furthermore, studies point to well-placed trees as signifi cant players in preventing crime and in making neighborhoods feel safer. We are far more likely to enjoy the outdoors in areas where trees provide shade and a comfortable space for socializing, keeping more ‘eyes on the streets’ and building stronger neighborhood networks.

The Charles Oak along Booker Creek in Historic Roser Park appears in 100-year-old vintage postcards and is a neighborhood landmark. It’s estimated to be close to 200 years old and is named after Charles Roser, the founder of Roser Park.

The well-known kapok tree on the south lawn of the Museum of Fine Arts was planted as a sapling by the museum’s fi rst director, Rexford Stead, in 1965.

In 2017, the St. Petersburg Sustainability Council published the “Legendary Trees of St. Petersburg” Calendar, where trees from every St. Pete district came with a story of that tree, adding to the beautiful, historic tapestry of life in St. Petersburg. In the end, people just love trees. Nearly everyone has a tree story and feels protective of his or her ‘special tree’. Living in an urban forest encourages all of us to relax and enjoy our lives and off ers a sense of place that adds to the pleasure of living in St. Petersburg and its vibrant neighborhoods.

Cathy Harrelson is President of St. Petersburg Sustainability Council and Chair of the CBC Urban Forestry Committee.