Organic Gardening: Urban Forestry and Your Home. How homeowners can improve tree canopy. In 1969, Walter Cronkite announced on the CBS Evening News that Chattanooga, TN was the most polluted city in the United States. It was a harsh national indictment of a city already plagued by a faltering economy and racial tension, but it ultimately prompted the newly-founded EPA to allocate billions of dollars into downtown redevelopment. Part of the urban renaissance that followed over the next 30 years involved planting some 10,000 trees in the downtown area...

Organic Gardening: Urban Forestry and Your Home. How homeowners can improve tree canopy.

The full article can be found at http://www.networx.com/article/urban-forestry-and-your-home.

In 1969, Walter Cronkite announced on the CBS Evening News that Chattanooga, TN was the most polluted city in the United States. It was a harsh national indictment of a city already plagued by a faltering economy and racial tension, but it ultimately prompted the newly-founded EPA to allocate billions of dollars into downtown redevelopment. Part of the urban renaissance that followed over the next 30 years involved planting some 10,000 trees in the downtown area.

"Air pollution was so bad that cars had to drive with their headlights on in the middle of the day, and men who worked downtown had to bring a change of shirt to wear after going out to lunch because their shirts would become gray from walking outside mid-day. After 5 PM, downtown was a ghost town," said Gene Hyde, the chief arborist of the city of Chattanooga and the president of the Society of Municipal Arborists, who has spent the past 20 years reforesting the city.

In a phone call with him Monday, he said, "Now there's new life, new businesses, new apartments, and street life. We built an arts district and we revegetated the oldest bridge in Chattanooga and turned it into a walking bridge and a river park. Trees were part of the overall plan to rebuild the downtown area."

Hyde cited a few recent urban forestry successes in Chattanooga. "For instance, Jefferson Park is an infill area. It's a neighborhood that was falling apart. As part of the redevelopment effort, it has been rebuilt with energy-efficient EarthCraft homes. We've planted shade trees, flowering trees, and apple trees, and we've created a neighborhood garden."

Hyde also cited an example on the south side of Chattanooga, where they planted 100 Yoshino Cherry trees. Hyde said, "The residents were thrilled to have them installed. When we plant trees in a neighborhood, we invite the neighborhood in advance. Everybody pitches in. When you have people involved, it increases the buy-in for the program, and it pays rich dividends."

Chattanooga stands out as an example of the correlation between improving urban air quality and improving urban life in general. According to Dr. Kathleen Wolf of the University of Washington, who directs the Center for Urban Horticulture, it's only one of many American cities that has aggressively planted trees in an effort to rejuvenate urban areas. She told me, "Chicago has a very effective tree campaign. New York City has a successful campaign, as well as Albuquerque and Los Angeles. A few cities have 'million tree' campaigns. The target numbers of trees in these campaigns are generally determined by an analysis, but some are political. Portland, which is known for its urban forestry efforts, did an analysis of tree potential and determined that 200,000 trees was the best goal for strategic urban greening."