News Brief | Saving old trees might save lives

||| FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES |||

Many cities across the country, including New York, have been planting trees in neighborhoods where cooling shade has been sparse because of neglect in decades past. But a new study has found that simply adding trees is not enough: To get the most from tree cover, communities also have to preserve older ones.

Instead of focusing on absolute numbers, the researchers matched changes in tree canopy over the years with mortality rates in those neighborhoods.

Studies have previously shown an association between tree cover and public health outcomes. The new study is novel because it tracks how the tree canopy expands or contracts in response to development, natural disasters and other forces, and how those changes in turn appear to correlate to communitywide health.

READ FULL ARTICLE