{"id":14789,"date":"2024-05-07T08:24:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-07T12:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/?p=14789"},"modified":"2024-05-07T09:04:18","modified_gmt":"2024-05-07T13:04:18","slug":"colgates-tree-canopy-facilitates-a-healthy-environment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/2024\/05\/07\/colgates-tree-canopy-facilitates-a-healthy-environment\/","title":{"rendered":"Colgate&#8217;s Tree Canopy Facilitates a Healthy Environment"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Since 2018, the University has planted 763 trees \u2014 bringing the total number of trees on campus to approximately 3,500. This represents a more than 20% increase in the number of campus trees during the last five years, excluding naturally wooded areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This work \u201cmakes campus more beautiful, but it\u2019s more than just that,\u201d says Landscape Project Manager Katy Jacobs. \u201cWe\u2019re making campus more resilient.\u201d Adding tree cover and increasing the diversity of tree species on campus helps make the campus more adaptable to extreme weather and climate change, she explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">These efforts are a mixture of resilience and mitigation, adds Director of Sustainability John Pumilio. \u201cAs trees grow, they sequester carbon,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s part of a strategy to reduce the impacts of climate change by taking carbon out of the atmosphere.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The following numbers are indicators of Colgate\u2019s healthy campus, but they also demonstrate benefits for humans and animals. Forests purify the air, reduce soil runoff, provide cooling, mitigate storm impacts, and provide ecosystem services and habitats for wildlife. \u201cA healthy tree canopy helps make the campus landscape more healthy, habitable, and enjoyable \u2014 which is good for physical and mental well-being,\u201d Jacobs says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\">Colgate Trees and Campus Impact<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Most common species of trees on campus: Sugar maple, Norway spruce, Northern red oak<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Pollution removal: 1,215 pounds\/year<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Carbon sequestration*: 22 tons\/year<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Carbon storage*: 1,830 tons stored in 2021<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Oxygen production: 57.81 tons\/year<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Avoided runoff: 82,340 cubic feet\/year<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Bird species seen on and around campus: 81<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">*Pumilio explains carbon sequestration and storage as follows: \u201cAs trees grow, they\u2019re pulling carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and turning it into branches, roots, and leaves. They\u2019re turning the carbon dioxide into carbon, the building material. They\u2019re sequestering it. That becomes the storage. Each time [we\u2019ve measured] our forest, the annual rate of sequestration increased, and our amount of storage continues to increase, which is an indicator that our forests continue to grow and mature.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">These data were analyzed using the i-Tree Eco model developed by the U.S. Forest Service, Northern Research Station. The data were last collected in 2021, so the numbers have likely increased some. \u201cTrees are pretty slow growing, so we don\u2019t anticipate tons of changes,\u201d Pumilio says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>In addition to campus trees, Colgate has more than 1,000 acres of nearby forested land.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The number of campus trees provides benefits to humans, fauna, and the environment. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":14791,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[228,2244,54,113,928],"coauthors":[388],"class_list":["post-14789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scene","tag-climate-change","tag-ecosystem","tag-environment","tag-sustainability","tag-trees"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/palXSH-3Qx","amp_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2024\/04\/051123_spring_MDD_00283.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14789"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14789\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15115,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14789\/revisions\/15115"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14789"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=14789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}