Just about everyone appreciates the beauty of trees but may overlook all of the value they can bring to a community. A team composed of experts from West Virginia University, the City of Morgantown, the West Virginia Division of Forestry and the USDA Forest Service hope to change that.

Greg Dahle, assistant professor of arboriculture and urban forestry in WVU’s Division of Forestry and Natural Resources, has only been in Morgantown for a year, but he formed a connection with the Morgantown Tree Board before he’d even arrived.

“I was contacted by a number of board members who were involved in the 2011 Street Tree Inventory,” Dahle explained. “They learned that I would be working to launch WVU’s arboriculture and urban forestry program and correctly thought I would be interested in their work. I joined the board when I moved as I wanted to become involved with protecting and growing our local urban forest.”

Dahle teamed with the volunteer board to launch an effort to educate the community about the environmental and economic benefits of trees, teaming with state and federal agencies to provide a fuller look at the city’s tree population and the benefits those trees contribute.

He and the board drew on the expertise of the Forest Service’s Anne Cumming and the Division of Forestry’s Bob Hannah to communicate the environmental, economic and social benefits of trees.

“I think one of this important messages in this project is that trees are not only pleasant to look at, they provide valuable ecosystem services as well as social benefits at both the city level and for individual homeowners,” said Dahle.

“Using a 2011 tree inventory conducted by Anne and her colleagues at the USDA Forest Service, we estimated that the Morgantown street trees alone provide nearly $69,000 dollars in ecosystem benefits like reducing energy use, managing storm water runoff, and improving air quality,” Dahle said. “That’s an average of $52 per tree.”

The monetary benefits city-wide would certainly be higher when you factor in all the trees in Morgantown’s urban forest including those in our parks, front and back yards, commercial sites, as well as the hillsides and along the river.

While Morgantown enjoys a considerable return on its tree canopy, Dahle and company suggest that there’s still room for more. The city has a canopy cover of about 33 percent; the recommended level for this region of the United States is 40 to 45 percent.

“There are still large areas of Morgantown without significant tree coverage, and the downtown is a good example,” Dahle said. “I think there is room to add more trees along our city streets and in many of our residential areas. This would increase the benefits that we currently receive.”

Morgantown has approximately 1,315 street trees valued at $1,545,344. These trees grow along city streets and are managed by the city under guidance of the Morgantown Tree Board.

The city has over 90 different species of street trees, the most common being maple, plum and spruce. “Maintaining a diverse tree population is a good protection against the risk of a pest or disease killing large number of trees,” Dahle said.

The core of the tree education effort is a series of slides that will air on the city’s government access channel 15. In addition to articulating the benefits trees bring to a community, the slide series also addresses proper tree care, from planting to pruning to choosing the right tree care company. Viewers will be introduced to valuable resources and some surprising facts on the emotional and even educational benefits of a healthy tree population.

In addition to his work with the board, Dahle has been busy on campus, developing new courses. He’ll teach a new arboriculture course in the fall which will cover the biology and management of trees and include a number of hands-on experiences and visits from industry experts. In the spring, he’ll teach an urban forestry course which will introduce students to important management issues of trees in urban environments.

-WVU-

dw/05/18/12

CONTACT: David Welsh, Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design
304-293-2394, dwelsh@wvu.edu

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