This Arbor Day, remember benefits of mature trees

A longtime volunteer shared with me recently that the 'tree tags” we place on mature trees - to demonstrate a tree's lifetime benefits - have had a huge impact on her. She had no idea that one mature tree could provide so many benefits to our homes, neighborhoods, and communities and that those benefits have a cash value.

For example, one large black oak on the Brucemore grounds was valued at providing $81,500 in benefits in the form of increased energy efficiency, stormwater retention, increased property values and more. Estimated to be over 100 years old, the oak is in outstanding condition and should continue to provide growing benefits for many years to come.

With pests such as emerald ash borer, as well as storms and ongoing clearing of trees and natural areas for development and cropping, we continue to lose mature trees at an alarming rate. As we celebrate Arbor Day by planting new trees, let's remember the mature trees that provide us so many important benefits.

Trees and native plants benefit water quality by taking up rainfall and reducing erosion and pollution from field and lawn runoff. Urban trees can reduce annual stormwater runoff by 2 to 7 percent, and a mature tree can store 50 to 100 gallons of water during large storms.

A study conducted by Trees Forever with the help of Coe College students concluded that for every $1 spent on street trees in Cedar Rapids, taxpayers receive $4 back in benefits. The more healthy, mature street, park and private trees a city has, the more benefits we all receive.

And trees are homes, too. Just one mature oak can support up to 500 species of butterflies, moths, bees, birds and mammals, all while also cleaning our air and water and providing shade. We must do our best to preserve existing mature trees and habitat whenever possible during new construction and development.

Neighbors on 34th Street SE in Cedar Rapids have objected to plans that would remove mature trees to install sidewalks. In southwest and northwest areas of the city along the Cedar River, mature trees have been clear-cut to make way for flood protection and new development. While it is very difficult to reach consensus on the best approach in these situations, creative planning and learning from other cities on how to preserve more large trees can go a long way toward preserving healthy trees that are 50, 75 and even over 100 years old.

In the coming year, Cedar Rapids will conduct a street tree inventory that will value large trees using the same calculator as the Trees Forever/Coe College study, a great tool to help us appreciate trees as living capital assets. This Arbor Day, and throughout the year, let's keep in mind the 'multi-tasking” job performed by mature trees as we plant new trees for the next generation.

' Dustin Hinrichs is a program manager and local coordinator for Trees Forever. Comments: Dhinrichs@treesforever.org