There are so many already wonderful reasons to increase our stock of trees that—if this new one pans out—it will be just another motivation to richen the regional forest.
EPA is urged to turn over new leaf
Local air pollution fighters want to include trees as a weapon.
By Bobby Caina Calvan - Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:00 am PDT Friday, May 18, 2007
For years, tree lovers have touted the virtues of the capital's canopy -- its lush beauty, its cooling shade and its apparent ability to scrub the air of tailpipe emissions and other pollutants.
But can the tree huggers persuade the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to embrace trees as weapons in the fight against bad air?
Preliminary results from an ongoing three-year study of urban forests show promise, according to the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District, which is rushing to include trees in the federally mandated air quality plan it's sending the EPA early next year.
The Urban Forests for Clean Air project, run by a U.S. Forest Service team based at UC Davis and funded by $725,000 in grants secured by the Sacramento Tree Foundation, claims that 1 million trees could remove about 1,800 pounds of air-fouling carbon emissions and other pollutants -- or about 3 percent of the hydrocarbons spewed into the region's air basin on a sweltering summer's day.
"We've been working really hard in California to reduce air pollution. As we've gone down this path of reducing emissions, it's getting more expensive and harder to find new sources of where to cut emissions," said Larry Greene, executive director of the air quality district.
Trees represent biotechnology at its most basic. The six-county Sacramento region has 17 million trees.
