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Co-Benefits ● Environmental Benefits: <br />○ Habitat: Healthy trees can increase and protect the biodiversity of <br />species in your community. <br />○ Water Quality and Management: Trees store and filter more than half <br />of the water supply in the United States.Trees can help reduce <br />stormwater runoff and some species can thrive in flood-prone areas. <br />Other species are drought tolerant and reduce the need for irrigation. <br />○ Tree Canopy: Increased tree canopy decreases heat islands. <br />● Physical Health: There are many Human Benefits of Green Spaces, for both <br />physical and mental health. <br />● Jobs - While this program focuses on utilizing volunteers, you may be <br />supporting job development skills for residents. <br />● Time Saving - Volunteers hours can offset the time needed for staff or <br />contractors to plant and maintain trees. Trees that are well taken care of also <br />require less time in ongoing maintenance or removal and replacements. <br />● Financial Benefit: Trees and other natural infrastructure provide quantifiable <br />savings to communities. <br />○ For example, according to the National Tree Benefit Calculator, a <br />20-inch diameter ash tree near a residence provides benefits worth <br />$197/yr. When these benefits are weighed against the cost to <br />purchase, plant, prune, protect, and eventually remove a tree, the <br />benefits outweigh the costs by a margin of about three to one. The <br />dollars spent to remove and replace one average-sized urban ash tree <br />could instead be used to preserve, for over 20 years, 2 ash trees that <br />will provide four times the tree benefits of the one replacement tree. <br />○ Read about numerous other financial benefits on the GreenStep Best <br />Practice #16: Community forests and soils page. <br />● Community: <br />○ Equity & Environmental Justice: Greenspace is often lacking in <br />areas of environmental justice concern and low-moderate income <br />neighborhoods. Projects can be prioritized in these areas, creating <br />access to and restoring the places that are unique to the community. <br />○ Community Resilience: Ecosystem restoration teaches local <br />community members how to care for land in a sustainable way and to <br />pay attention to how their individual actions impact the local <br />environment. Greenspace can provide substantial heat relief. <br />○ Property Values - Large trees in yards along streets can increase a <br />home's property value from 3-15%. Access to nearby public spaces <br />with trees can also increase property values. <br />○ Community Asset - Communities often highlight their parks and <br />greenspaces as community assets. Trees create attractive <br />neighborhoods that increase the desirability of living in a community, <br />which can help attract and retain workers. <br />○ Community Connection: Create community connection through <br />volunteer organization and grow community knowledge about tree <br />care. <br />Estimated <br />Project <br />Implementation <br />Details <br />● Time: Determining a project, finding a project partner and recruiting community <br />volunteers takes time. You may need to plan for, advertise and run events, <br />interview and place volunteers where their skills are best utilized, and <br />recognize volunteers through special events or other follow up. Many <br />communities may utilize a volunteer coordinator in a part-time capacity. <br />● Cost: The cost of tools and supplies for the project will depend on the project <br />and how large it is. There are some grants that fund these types of projects in <br />communities. If you can’t find one, reach out to GreenStep staff for help!