Benefits of Plants and Trees

Beautification has a positive impact on property values. These benefits are often overlooked by municipal leaders. This presentation from Dr. Charlie Hall equips you with the data to support your ongoing beautification efforts.

Researchers have found that the presence of houseplants in homes and workplaces can reduce eye irritation and stress, motivate employees, improve concentration, and even reduce air impurities.

Want to be a better person? Commune with nature. Paying attention to the natural world not only makes you feel better, it makes you behave better, finds a new study to be published October 1 in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.

After learning that burglars were less likely to target homes on flower-lined streets, neighbors in the Tokyo district of Suginami launched Operation Flower in their community, and burglaries plummeted almost 80%.

Contact with nature has long been suspected to increase positive feelings, reduce stress, and provide distraction from the pain associated with recovery from surgery. Now, research has confirmed the beneficial effects of plants and flowers for patients recovering from abdominal surgery.

Researchers at Kansas State University already have shown that gardening can offer enough moderate physical activity to keep older adults in shape.

University of Michigan psychology researchers explored the cognitive benefits of interacting with nature and found that walking in a park in any season, or even viewing pictures of nature, can help improve memory and attention.

A bit of greenery near our homes can cut the “health gap” between rich and poor, say researchers from two Scottish universities. Even small parks in the heart of our cities can protect us from strokes and heart disease, perhaps by cutting stress or boosting exercise.

Residential common areas with trees and other greenery help to build strong neighborhoods. In a study conducted at a Chicago public housing development, residents of buildings with more trees and grass reported that they knew their neighbors better, socialized with them more often, had stronger feelings of community, and felt safer and better adjusted than did residents of more barren, but otherwise identical, buildings.

The City of Portland Oregon Parks & Recreation department recently published a report that examines the benefits of the urban tree canopy, which covers about 25 % of the city. The report calculates the dollar value of environmental and aesthetic benefits that trees provide the city.

There are plenty of reasons to like green spaces in cities: they’re pretty, they catch stormwater runoff, they improve health. And now a new body of evidence is coming into focus on how urban nature affects crime. It appears that the way we take care of our trees, shrubs, and lawns makes a difference for the safety of the surrounding area.

We would all prefer to walk down a tree-lined street to one without trees, but did you know that the street itself prefers to run under trees? This report examines the cost-saving benefits of having shaded streets. All other factors equal, the condition of pavement on tree-shaded streets is better than on unshaded streets.

A study shows that shade trees on the west and south sides of a house in California can reduce a homeowner’s summertime electric bill by about $25.00 a year.

Ever wondered what the dollar value is of your “In Bloom” efforts? Ever tried to put that into words that municipal leaders will respond to? Ever tried to make a compelling case for volunteers to step up and participate in your In Bloom efforts?

Dr. Charlie Hall, ag economist at Texas A&M University and special advisor to America in Bloom, provided during his keynote presentation at the 2018 AIB Symposium & Awards Celebration the data you need to help quantify the benefits of America in Bloom.

Biophilia, meaning the love of nature, perhaps an unfamiliar term to many of us, is the urge of humans to affiliate with other living things. Although many of us know this concept intuitively, it can take on many facets and become difficult to wrap one’s mind around.

The core notion of biophilia is an experience of love or attraction to living biological systems. In addition, there’s the biophilia hypothesis, first introduced by the celebrated biologist E.O. Wilson in 1984. The hypothesis holds that human beings, having spent much of their evolutionary development as a species in nature, are inherently drawn to natural settings. For those who are so inclined, it could be a God thing. Designing a property, neighborhood or city incorporating biophilic aspects essentially means providing space for nature in one or more of its many forms.

Your parents were wrong: money does grow on trees. Cities routinely rake up tens of millions of dollars from their urban forests annually in ways that are not always obvious. Leafy canopies lower summer air conditioning bills, but more shade also means less blade to maintain thousands of acres of grass. Health-wise, trees contribute to lower asthma rates and birth defects by removing air pollutants. Across the nation this Arbor Day, city foresters should celebrate trees as economic drivers and get past the false dichotomy of economy versus environment.