US urban areas are losing 36 million trees every year, study finds

Urban and community areas in the U.S. are losing their trees, according to a new study conducted by the U.S. Forest Service. And this loss is happening at a fast clip – the study finds that, overall, these areas lost around 175,000 acres of tree cover annually between 2009 and 2014. This loss, Forest Service researchers say, equates to the disappearance of some 36 million trees every year. Urban forests aren’t just esthetically pleasing; they provide a variety of benefits to cities from shielding buildings from the sun and reducing cooling costs and energy consumption, filtering pollutants from water and air, mitigating flooding and erosion, and helping in the fight against global warming by storing carbon. In total, analysts estimate urban trees save the U.S. around $18.3 billion every year. But new research published recently in Urban Forestry and Urban Greening finds urban tree cover – and the myriad benefits it provides – appears to be declining in the U.S. When researchers with the USDA Forest Service researchers David Nowak and Eric Greenfield analyzed tree cover extent in urban areas between 2009 and 2014, they found significant drop-offs in many areas. Overall, the researchers estimate that urban areas lost a collective total of 1 percent of their tree cover in five years. When they looked at a broader land classification called “urban/community” that encompasses both urban areas and other areas of less-dense human habitation, they found that those regions lost a collective total of 0.7 percent. Broken down by state…

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