KUHF-88.7 reports that the Texas Forest Service has completed a four-year study of Houston’s trees and determined the value of our beautiful green canopy:
It took over four years, but the Texas Forest Service was able to count the trees in Houston and actually put a monetary number on what they’re worth. According to the report, there are 663 million trees in the 8-county Houston region valued at over $205 billion. Pete Smith is the partnership coordinator with the Texas Forest Service. “That speaks volumes as to what they’re really worth. That’s just in the landscape. $456 million of annual environmental benefits, that’s a big number. We really didn’t have a good idea that trees were worth that much to us,” he says.
Smith says the trees store $721 million worth of carbon and remove over 60,000 tons of air pollution every year.
The report points out that while Houston has an impressive urban forest canopy, 17-percent of those trees have been lost since 1992, a total of around 78 million trees. The losses are due in part to changes in how land is used and also because of invasive species of trees that are wiping out other species. Texas Forest Service Director Jim Hull says philosophies are changing. “In the past, maybe there could have been some things done that would have maintained some of these trees, but we’re really looking now at establishing a baseline for the future,” he says.
Save the trees! In my own little corner of Harris County we are losing more and more trees. Developers raze every last tree on a parcel of land to build something. Why? Why not save some, even if it’s only around the perimeter? We are watching as a huge stand of trees is slowly being bulldozed on FM 2920 at Falvel Road. Also, various sections of land along Gosling Road are losing trees. Especially confounding is a new subdivision called Gosling Pines where there is not a single pine tree left standing! In fact, the development’s landscaping includes…a few crape myrtles.
Trees add so much…it just kills me that many developers are short-sighted and find it easier to bulldoze them all.
RELATED: Trees for Houston
(Old) Forum Comments (11)
