Episode 90: The Impact of Forests in Our Climate Change Fight

In this episode, host Peterson Toscano guides us through an exploration of the role forests play in addressing the causes and impacts of climate change, both in urban and rural settings. Six guests provide personal narratives, expert insights, and actionable strategies that will inform and inspire climate advocates. This episode also delves into Pennsylvania’s rich forest history, from its old-growth forests to modern-day conservation efforts, highlighting the legacy of sustainable stewardship by its original inhabitants.

Toscano notes, “PA has a legacy of being one of the more heavily-wooded states in the USA… But If you walk through the over 15 million acres of forests in Pennsylvania, only 1% of that is original old growth forest.” This fact highlights the dramatic changes our landscapes have undergone and the need for renewed focus on forest conservation.

Creating a Campus Food Forest

If you want to make a difference on your own campus or in your community, students at Allegheny college have an answer for you. A Food Forest. Ashlynn Peachey, Nicholas Waddington, and Katie Mallory, students at Allegheny College talk about their pioneering Food Forest project.  

Ashlynn Peachey: “It really started when one student years ago came to Allegheny College with a passion for permaculture… We like to look around the college landscape and see, not what it is, but what it can be.” That student, Sebastian McRae, helped to found a campus Sustainable Design Team. 

Nicholas Waddington, describes their project: “A food forest is a diverse planting… it provides a lot of climate and ecosystem services.” He emphasizes the symbiotic relationship between different plant species and their collective role in enhancing ecosystem health.

It was at the Northeast Student Farmer Conference held at Penn State University that CCR host, Peterson Toscano attended the students’ breakout group about their successes in building campus support for the Food Forest. During the presentation they explain the steps they took to engage stakeholders, to design the Food Forest and to follow through once the project was approved.  Their story is a testament to the power of collaborative efforts and the importance of gaining community support.

Nicholas Waddington: “From our combined years of engagement with this project, we’ve really taken away that climate and campus resilience is hugely community-driven… We’re stronger and more productive when we work together.”

In this episode you will learn about sustainable agriculture and permaculture (a word Bill Mollison coined) and how you can replicate their success on your own campus or community.

Raising the Awareness of a Healthy Forest Sustainability Legacy and our Responsibility Today

Former forester and coal miner, Van Wagner, now teaches Agriculture Science at the Area High School in Danville, Pennsylvania. He is also a singer/songwriter and storyteller. Van Wagner offers a historical perspective, emphasizing the longevity of sustainable practices. 

“I laugh when I read in my textbook, and in the textbook it says that the environmental movement began in 1970 with the first Earth Day… That’s not when it started. My German ancestors here in the Susquehanna River Valley, they knew about sustainability, you didn’t ruin the family farm, you didn’t cut all the trees down.” -Van Wagner

In order to increase efforts to maintain and protect forests in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Van has committed himself to visiting the highest point in the 67 counties and climbing the tallest tree he can find. Van explains, I’m trying to get the press’s attention. And when they stick a microphone in my face, I talk about trees and forestry.”

You can follow his progress on the site Van Wagner Highest Climbs. Also, see him climbing in videos on his YouTube channel. 

Expanding the Legacy of Tree Growing in Small Country Towns and Big Cities

Taylor Lightman grew up in the Borough of Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, (population 5232) “a delightfully cozy little town nestled on the banks, the Susquehanna River, one of the oldest river valleys in the world, older than the Nile.” He then went to college in Northfield, Minnesota and then to grad school in Lund, Sweden where he completed a Master’s in disaster risk management and climate change adaptation. 

Today Taylor is the program Manager for Lewisburg Neighborhoods. He says, “I’m trying to figure out a way to do climate smart neighborhood revitalization. I think there’s no better place to do that than in one’s hometown”

In this episode Taylor talks about the importance of growing trees in towns and cities. 

“Trees are doing a lot of things for us. Streets with trees on them, the shops do better…people are driving on streets and roads with trees, they behave less aggressively too.” 

His insights reveal the extensive benefits of urban trees beyond just environmental impact. 

Listen Now! 

Nerd Corner

Dana Nuccitelli considers the question: what are the different ways we would benefit from planting more trees in cities and towns? This question is critical to CCLs healthy forest policy area. In regards to addressing the causes of climate change, Dana says, “Planting more urban trees in the U.S. has the potential to capture up to 100 million tons of carbon dioxide pollution per year.” 

But wait, there’s more! Urban tree planting offers multifaceted benefits, enhancing climate resilience, physical and mental health, and fostering active lifestyles and community well-being.

And there is important work for us to do. Dana says,  

“But while people in communities with more trees live longer, happier, healthier lives on average, America has a tree inequity problem. Communities of color have 33% less tree canopy on average than majority white communities.” 

To learn more Dana encourages you to visit Check TreeEquityScore.org to see where tree planting would be the most effective in your community to remedy this tree inequity problem. 

Check out Dana’s recent post about The little-known physical and mental health benefits of urban trees. Keep up to speed with climate science, policy, and economics research by visiting The Nerd Corner website. 

Take a Meaningful Next Step

Are you someone who wants to see legislation passed to protect, maintain, and promote healthy forests? That is exactly what we are doing through Citizens’ Climate Lobby. One of the four climate solutions we pursue is healthy forests. We need your voice to be part of the movement that is promoting healthy forests. Here are 10 steps you can take to make to address the causes and impacts of climate change.

Ten meaningful steps you can take to promote healthy forests

Learn about Citizens’ Climate Lobby’s Healthy Forests Climate Solutions and take the Healthy Forests Beginners or Advanced online training sessions. You can also read and share the article, Why are forests important for mitigating climate change?
If you are a college student, visit Citizens’ Climate Lobby’s Higher Education Team’s Actions Page. Learn about the College #CarbonFeeAndDividendMovement.
Participate in Community Tree Planting Events: Engage in local tree planting initiatives or donate to tree planting efforts. If you live in Pennsylvania, check out 10 Million Trees. 
Volunteer for Urban Forestry Projects: Support urban forestry projects in your community. Check out American Forests for volunteer opportunities.
Advocate for Tree Equity: Work towards ensuring that all communities, especially underprivileged ones, have equal access to tree canopy benefits.
Educate Yourself and Others: Learn more about the benefits of urban trees and share this knowledge. The Arbor Day Foundation provides educational resources.
Support Local Sustainability Initiatives at Schools and Universities: Encourage and participate in sustainability projects. Contact local educational institutions to find out how you can help.
Engage in Community Science Projects: Participate in local environmental monitoring and research. Platforms like iNaturalist offer opportunities for citizen science.
Promote and Support Local Green Spaces: Advocate for the maintenance and development of green spaces in urban areas. Collaborate with local parks departments or environmental groups.
Implement Permaculture Practices in Your Community: Start or join a permaculture project to promote sustainable land use. Resources and guides are available at Permaculture Research Institute.

Listener Survey

We want to hear your feedback about this episode. After you listen, feel free to fill in this short survey. Your feedback will help us as we make new decisions about the content, guests, and style of the show. You can fill it out anonymously and answer whichever questions you like. 

You can hear Citizens’ Climate Radio on:

iTunes
Spotify
SoundCloud
Podbean
Stitcher Radio
Northern Spirit Radio
PlayerFM
TuneIn Radio

Also, feel free to connect with other listeners, suggest program ideas, and respond to programs in the Citizens’ Climate Radio Facebook group or on Twitter at @CitizensCRadio.

 

Read the Transcript
CCR90 Healthy Forests

 

Peterson Toscano  

Welcome to Citizens’ Climate Radio–Your Climate Change Podcast. (music) In this show we highlight people’s stories, we celebrate your successes, and together we share strategies for talking about climate change. I am your host, Peterson Toscano. Welcome to episode 90 of Citizens’ Climate Radio, a project of Citizens’ Climate Education. This episode is airing on Friday  Nov 24, 2023

 

I absolutely adore walking in the woods, especially in big forests. I grew up in the Catskill Mountains in the US state of New York.  My grandmother’s house sat on the edge of 10 acres of hilly woods. I explored every nook and cranny of it. I picked wild blueberries and walked up and down the stream that ran through it looking for brightly colored salamanders. Then when I went to university in New York City, I regularly explored the rambling woods in Central Park and Van Cortlandt Park. 

Forests are not only beautiful, they are an essential part of our efforts to regulate the climate. This is true in rural spaces and in cities.

 

Today’s episode includes conversations about different types of forests. It has plenty of geeky stuff for tree nerds and important insights for climate advocates. 

In this show you will hear from A group of students at Allegheny College in Pennsylvania who tell us about the Food Forest they proposed, designed, and planted. The students reveal the important steps it took to gain approval and cooperation from faculty, staff, and fellow students.

 

To tell us about large forests, we feature. Van Wagner. He is a former forester and coal miner who now teaches science in a high school. But most people in Central Pennsylvania know Van as a storyteller and singer-songwriter. I attended one of his performances earlier this year. In it Van revealed historical facts about the harvesting and transporting of trees before the times of railroads. You may be surprised to learn who did this work and how they did it with sustainability in mine. As part of an effort to promote healthy forests, Van has been spending time climbing very tall trees. 

And You will hear the chat I had with Taylor Lightman. Taylor leads an effort to revitalize the country town of Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. Walk around the town and you will see old fashioned lanterns and many trees lining the streets. Taylor tells me many more trees are needed and why. He outlines for us the many benefits of urban tree planting as he shares insider tips and recommendations. 

 

Oh, and Dana Nuccitelli joins us with Nerd Corner. He shares even more insights into trees and forests.

 

Peterson Toscano  

Let’s begin in Penn’s Woods, or the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. PA has a legacy of being one of the more heavily-wooded states in the USA. The Pennsylvania Department of Conservation & Natural Resources states that forests cover more than 60% of Pennsylvania. That is over 15 million acres. This includes deep forests in the northern tier. In the south you will find forested ridges. Throughout the state various woodlots and urban and community forests abound.

 

Even though this land was covered in trees for thousands of years, most of the trees are younger than 100 years old. That may sound old to some people, but the Eastern Pine Tree can live to up to 400 years. Left undisturbed by loggers, maple and oak trees can live for 300 years or more. And the Eastern Hemlock can grow to over 100 feet and live for 800 years. 

But If you walk through the over 15 million acres of forests in Pennsylvania, only 1% of that is original old growth forest. In the late 1800s and early 1900s logging companies engaged in an intense period of logging and deforestation. They stripped the mountains bare.

 

But it wasn’t always this way. There is a much longer history of sustainability and stewardship in these lands. The Susquehannock, Haudenosaunee, and Lenape, among other original inhabitants, maintained the land so it remained rich in wildlife. 

 

And while early European settlers cleared land for crops and towns, they recognized the forests were important to protect. 

That’s what Van Wagner shares in his presentations about the Susquehanna River Valley. A former coal miner and forester, Van now teaches Agriculture Science at Danville Area High School. Earlier this year I heard Van sing his original songs about local history and tell stories about days gone by. He also told us about his ambitious and slightly dangerous campaign to get people thinking about forests.

 

Van Wagner  

(Singing)

The era of taking white pine down the Susquehanna River to the markets in southern Pennsylvania, your ancestors did this for going on 200 years, this was a staple in the Susquehanna Valley. And I can’t stress that enough. This is your family story. I have a lot of folks that will tell me like oh, no, no, my family. We weren’t loggers. We were farmers.  Farmers is who that song is about. There were not loggers. That word logger is a fairly modern word, the idea that a person who would go out in the woods and cut 12 months of the year with a crosscut saw, that’s  fairly modern,that’s like Civil War era. Before that America. God is lumber from farmers. They would go out in the winter months, and they cut white pine, and they skin it to the edge of the river or if you run a creek, you’d skin iti there first and then floated down. They don’t just float the logs, your ancestors put them together in a platform.they would attach their logs together. And then they would float their logs their private property to Marietta Lancaster County. 

 

If you want a round number I usually tell audiences about $100 for a log raft and it took a family of five to get in there. It was usually dad or granddad and a couple of kids and brother in law’s help. And so it’s $100 a lot of money in the 1830s 40s 50s. Well, you’re a farmer, farmers don’t make money, they make food, you know, so it was one of the few cash commodities that farmers could make if you weren’t from up in the rural parts of the state. So it was the only thing that you could grow on your property and get to market while it was still fresh. Can’t do that with dairy in the 1830s and 40s. So whiskey, furs and white pine were some of the things your ancestors could produce, and then shipped down in the spring. 

 

I laugh when I read in my textbook, and in the textbook it says that the environmental movement began in 1970 with the first Earth Day, okay, God bless those of you that were in 1970s preserved and that’s an important thing. That’s not when it started. I mean my German ancestors here in the Susquehanna River Valley, they knew about sustainability, you didn’t ruin the family farm you didn’t cut all the trees down. That’s your money for next year. And these kids when they grow up, they’re gonna make money off that stand of trees. Give those folks credit in our in our story. 

 

I’m trying to climb to the highest point in all 67 counties of Pennsylvania. And when I get there, I’m climbing the highest tree I can find. You might say that’s just an attention getter. Yes, it is. I’m trying to get the press’s attention. And when they stick a microphone in my face, I talk about trees and forestry. And it’s working beautifully. I’m very passionate about Pennsylvania’s forests. I think maybe it’s the teacher in me, I don’t know. But I find I get heartbroken when I run into other Pennsylvanians that maybe aren’t passionate or at least knowledgeable about the forest. And so it gives me about 10 seconds of America’s attention to say “Forests are really important, learn more,” and that’s all I’m trying to do. So I’ve already done Northumberland, County Montour, Union,  Schuylkill , and then yesterday I did three in one. I did  Columbia County, Luzerne County, and Sullivan County, And then I went home and slept and it was hard. I don’t plan on doing three in one day again, but 

 

(audience member) Yeah, how much life insurance are you carrying?” I do tree work and there’s this weird thing that happens in my head when I’m climbing. I’m going up high. Once I get to a point where from here up, I know I’m not going to wake up if I hit I’m actually pretty relaxed at that. But getting to that point, I hate that. It’s like that first 60 feet I really don’t like (applause)

 

Peterson Toscano  

That was Van Wagner. As of this recording, he’s climbed trees in 27 of the 67 Pennsylvania counties. You can learn more about him, hear his music online, and read his articles about coal mining, forests, and history. Visit vanwagnermusic dot com. If you want to track his progress climbing trees, google van wagner highest climbs. I put links in the show notes for you. 

 

Coming up two of my guests reveal the many benefits of growing more trees in cities and towns. You would think planting these trees is a no-brainer, but tree planters face challenges they must overcome..  

But first, let’s talk about food. Have you ever experienced biting into a fruit or vegetable that you picked yourself from an orchard or garden? It has to be one of my greatest pleasures. I never pass by juicy blackberries or mulberries without picking and eating a bunch. 

 When I heard college students created a food forest on their campus, I had to learn more about it. Earlier this year I attended  the Northeast Student Farmer Conference at Penn State University. Three students from Allegheny College led a breakout group about the process of pitching the idea of a food forest. They explained the steps to get it approved, planned, and planted.  

 

Alleghany is a celebrity campus for people in the world of sustainability. It is one of the very first universities in the United States to achieve climate neutrality. If you want to make a difference on your own campus or in your community, Ashlynn Peachey, Nicholas Waddington, and Katie Mallory have an answer. A Food Forest. I recorded their presentation. Here are the highlights from it. 

 

Nicholas Waddington  

Allegheny college is really devoted to doing our part in fighting climate change and the impact of climate change on our campus. And as one of the first colleges to achieve carbon neutrality in the country, we have been consistently supported by our administration. There have been a number of initiatives spearheaded by both faculty and students in areas like forestry and pollinator support, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, and a lot of food waste management as well. If you’re not familiar a food forest is a diverse planting of mostly edible crops, which when planted together combine their natural benefits and increasing mutualistic relationships with the goal of mimicking the patterns and system use. We see with naturally occurring ecosystems. It provides a lot of climate and ecosystem services, like filtering rainwater prevents erosion and improving soil health and increasing microorganism activity. 

 

The forest garden is split into seven layers by stratifying. That and by creating distinct layers, you can plant and reduce species competition for resources, which allows you to maximize the use of your space and really build some some good relationships between crops. Food forest is also an example of permaculture, which is a design framework that was popularized by David Holmgren and Bill Mollison, although it’s strongly rooted in indigenous knowledge and land management practices. It really emphasizes community care, land stewardship,and equitable distribution of resources, which highlights community environment that’s anchored in respect and reciprocity. Permaculture really brings out the best in the members of its guilds. And that’s not only plants, that’s also the communities who try and practice permaculture.

 

Ashlynn Peachey  

Sweet it’s now that we all have permaculture on the mind, we’re gonna talk about how it came to Allegheny college. It really started when one student values ago Sebastian McCrae came to Allegheny college with like a passion for permaculture, and he started all of these conversations. So in talking to faculty and peers, there was a lot of energy and decided to form a student group that would focus on permaculture on campus. He created Sustainable Design Team, which is a student round a group on campus with goals of promoting sustainability and efficiency on campus. Really, we like to look around the college landscape, and we see a grass lawn and we’re like, Well, what can we transform this into? It’s not what it is, it’s what it can be. And that’s like a big guiding function of Sustainable Design Team. 

 

No one on Allegheny Campus had done this before, or done anything like it before. So how do we even get the ball rolling and who needs to approve this project. So it started with a lot of conversations with a lot of different stakeholders around the campus. So we had a lot of support from our wonderful environmental science faculty. We had a lot of support from the sustainability director and office on campus. And they all had a lot of really important grade feedback that got taken into the designing process. We also talked to our admissions admissions office, because they were people who really kind of sell this to incoming students. And we also a really important group was campus maintenance, because we didn’t want to step on our toes, and we didn’t want to make more work for them. So we really needed to include them in the conversation of how this was going to go into the college landscape, and how students were going to maintain this project. 

 

At the same time, the students got to be really creative in building a food forest. It was all student ideas and like what kind of trees do we want? How do we want this to function? What are things that are important to us in this design? Eventually, we gained a budget approval from our Allegheny student government. People were really excited for this project. So we finally broke ground and planted in 2022 to last year. This project started in 2018. So it did take four years, we have eight guilds built around eight fruit trees. So we have apples, pears peaches, and in there there’s a berries of strawberries, raspberries, nitrogen fixers, and they aren’t meant to interact with one another. There’s about 60 supporting species in the food forest, most of them edible, but important parts of our designs was that our food for us was going to be interactive. This wasn’t something for students to look at. But this is a place for students to go within and be and interact with that around them. 

 

Nicholas Waddington  

From our combined years of engagement with this project, we’ve really taken away that climate and campus resilience is hugely community driven project. It doesn’t work like guilds when you’re isolated from those around you. We’re stronger and more productive when we work together.

 

Peterson Toscano  

That was Ashlynn Peachey, Nicholas Waddington, and Katie Mallory, students from Allegheny university. If you want to learn more about their food forest and the details around their climate neutrality achievement, I put links in our show notes. Visit cclusa.org/radio

 

Taylor Lightman  

My name is Taylor Lightman. I grew up in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, and that’s where I currently live. I went to college in Northfield, Minnesota and then I also went to grad school in Lund Sweden where I did my Master’s in disaster risk management and climate change adaptation. I’m trying to figure out a way to do climate smart neighborhood revitalization. I think there’s no better place to do that in one’s hometown. Currently, I’m the director of a small nonprofit called Lewisburg Neighborhoods, and we’re the neighborhood revitalization coordinator for the borough of Lewisburg. The borough of Lewisburg is a delightfully cozy little town nestled on the banks, the Susquehanna River, one of the oldest river valleys in the world, older than the Nile. 

 

Peterson Toscano  

I would imagine that the average person, say, from Philadelphia or parts of New York, would come to Lewisburg and say, Wow, this is a green oasis. It’s such a beautiful paradise, this rural village, I guess it’s a village. Is it considered a city? 

 

Taylor Lightman  

They call it a borough? Yeah. You know, it’s just trees and green everywhere. It’s amazing. 

 

Peterson Toscano  

What’s your response to that person? 

 

Taylor Lightman  

There’s two ways that I would respond. that. The first is this moment of gratitude. We do have a great urban forest because of decades of people putting in the work, growing trees. And these trees are testament to that labor. So it’s gratitude for all of that work that’s brought us to this current moment. But then also, and this is probably because I walk around a lot and look at places where trees can be, I see unfinished work. It’s gratitude, and then it’s acknowledgement of Well, yeah, well, we It’s beautiful, but we still have work we need to do and there’s, there’s still trees we need to grow. 

 

Peterson Toscano  

I think more and more people are hearing more and more buzz about trees. And Republicans have had a plan to plant lots of trees. Why are trees particularly important for it at this time in history?

 

Taylor Lightman  

she’s doing a lot of things for us. And a lot of things for the environments, very material, things like sequestering carbon filtering stormwater, particulate matter outside of the out of the air, but they also provide habitat for the biome, you know, all the flora and fauna that are a part of our town to. Beyond the material things that they provide us. They also do a lot for us emotionally as well. There’s something very uneasy, that happens when I find that I’m walking on a treeless Street, no shade. I just feel like I’m exposed in some ways. And it turns out that there is something to that. Streets with trees on them, the shops do better. They get more customers when there’s trees on the streets. You know, and then also, we know that when people are driving on streets and roads with trees, they behave less aggressively to and they drive slower. Trees give us tangible things and you know, material benefits. But they also give us things that are that are a little bit elusive, but but very real as well,

 

Peterson Toscano  

With your studies in climate change and addressing disaster, what roles do trees play on a rapidly changing planet?

 

Taylor Lightman  

If we’re going to really try and hit this 1.5 degree mark, which I think is still attainable, carbon sequestration is definitely a part of that solution, because I don’t think we’re going to hit that with emissions reductions alone. And trees are a great way to do that, sequester carbon, but then they also do these things like filter out stormwater and absorb stormwater and prevent erosion, and all kinds of things that really help us out from a variety of different hazards that are going to increase in severity with the changing climate.

 

Peterson Toscano  

We hear about like these urban heat islands, but you don’t live in a city. 

 

Taylor Lightman  

There’s even microclimates on a street. If you’re on a shaded street, I think that can be sometimes up to 10 degrees cooler than than one that has no trees.

 

Peterson Toscano  

So trees are a win win win win, nd I would imagine there’s no one who was opposed to trees at all. In like a town wher you live in, everyone’s happy. They’re like, yeah, yeah, more trees, more trees, is that right?

 

Taylor Lightman  

That’s not what I’ve encountered. There’s sometimes an opposition to planting trees and growing trees in a town. And I don’t quite understand that. There’s often some pushback when the suggestion to plant trees is around. And some of that is stuff that I I don’t understand it, I don’t have a good way to articulate that. But I think there is also something about people often plant trees and then don’t have a plan to take care of them. That can be discouraging for some people. Maybe they’ve been burned by a tree plant in the past and have some past trauma that they’re that they’re working out in the public realm. That’s actually something that as activists and organizers and as people that are just involved, even in our on our block that we can take from that criticism. How can we plant and grow a tree? 

  

You’ve noticed that I’ve been using the word How do we grow trees. Water it every summer. That sort of thing. Make sure that it’s being cared for, that it’s being responsibly pruned, if there’s a dangerous branch that arises. I think we all should recenter that. How do we grow trees? 

 

This is not something that I had a great deal of knowledge about going into my work. But it’s it’s also the type of thing that people are happy to teach other people about planting trees. I think trees also have kind of a spiritual quality about them, too. They’re sort of the monks or elders of a town that silently keep watch over generations. They really are a testament to the work that people did a long time ago to grow these things. So it’s cool to be a part of that legacy. And I hope people take this knowledge and grow a tree

 

Peterson Toscano  

That was Taylor Lightman, Program Manager for Lewisburg Neighborhoods. When he is not making his community a better place, he loves to ride his bike, collect books, and travel. 

 

To round off this conversation about trees Dana Nuccitelli joins us for another segment of The Nerd Corner

 

Dana Nuccitelli  

Hi, I’m Dana Nuccitelli, CCL research coordinator, and this is the Nerd Corner. I’m here to highlight some interesting new climate research for the nerds out there, and to make it understandable for the nerd curious. In this episode, we consider the question, what are the different ways we would benefit from planting more trees in cities and towns? This question is critical to CCLs healthy forest policy area. According to research from scientists at The Nature Conservancy, planting more urban trees in the United States has the potential to capture up to 100 million tons of carbon dioxide pollution per year. That’s equivalent to removing about 20 million cars from the road, or all of the gasoline powered cars in the entire state of Texas. 

 

Planting trees in cities doesn’t just help the climate; it also benefits people’s physical and mental health for example, as global warming brings increasingly frequent and extreme heat waves, urban trees improve our resilience to that heats by providing shade and releasing water into the air. Tree canopies also provide a measure of protection from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet rays. A number of studies have also found that exposure to urban forests generally reduces people’s mental and physical stress, anxiety and depression, and that they improve our moods. Research shows that people live more active lifestyles when living near urban forests, they also tend to have healthier immune systems, lower incidences of cardiovascular disease, and feel a greater sense of connectedness, belonging and trust. And students on school campuses with greater tree cover perform better academically. 

 

But while people in communities with more trees live longer, happier, healthier lives on average, America has a tree inequity problem. Communities of color have 33% Less tree canopy on average than majority white communities, and neighborhoods with the highest poverty rates have 41% less tree coverage than the wealthiest communities. Our friends in American Forests created a tool at tree equityscore.org with data about the level of tree inequity in every community around the country. Check out tree equityscore.org to see where tree planting would be the most effective in your community to remedy this tree inequity problem. 

 

I’m Dana Nuccitelli. With the Nerd Corner. Thank you for being curious and for your commitment to climate progress. To join the discussion about climate science, technology, Economics and Policy with CCL research team, check out the nerd corner at CCL usa.org/nerd-corner That CCLusa.org/nerd-corner. I hope to see you there.

 

Peterson Toscano  

Thank you for joining me for Episode 90 of Citizens’ Climate Radio. Are you someone who wants to see legislation passed to protect, maintain, and promote healthy forests? That is exactly what we are doing through Citizens’ Climate Lobby. One of the four climate solutions we pursue is healthy forests. We recognize the power of volunteers when we come together to educate the public and speak directly to our lawmakers locally and federally. We provide training, tools, and other resources. We need your voice to be part of the movement that is promoting healthy forests. To learn more visit CCLUSA.org. Under the “Our Climate Solutions” tab, you will find Healthy Forests. That website again is CCLUSA.org.

 

If you haven’t heard it yet, last month’s episode has the best of list you may have been looking for. We not only list the best new books and podcasts about climate change, we speak to the writers and podcasts. Look for Episode 89: The Best New Climate Change Books and Podcasts.

 

Today’s episode of Citizens’ Climate Radio is written by Dana Nuccitelli and me, Peterson Toscano. I produce the show from my little studio in Sunbury Pennsylvania, along the banks of the Susquehanna River. 

 

Technical support for our show comes from Ricky Bradley and Brett Cease. Assisting with social media are Flannery Winchester and Samantha Johnstone. Moral support for our show comes from Madeline Para. 

 

Please share Citizens’ Climate Radio with your friends and colleagues.You can find Citizens’ Climate Radio wherever you listen to podcasts. Radio. 

 

You can follow us on Twitter: @CitizensCRadio That’s Citizens the letter C Radio. CitizensCRadio. Call our listener voicemail line: (619) 512-9646. +1 if calling from outside the USA that number again. (619) 512-9646.

 

Feel free to tweet at me directly @p2son

Visit CCLUSA.org/radio to see our show notes and find links to our guests. 

 

Citizens’ Climate Radio is a project of Citizens’ Climate Education.

The post Episode 90: The Impact of Forests in Our Climate Change Fight appeared first on Citizens’ Climate Lobby.