Street Trees as Climate Resilience

An Austin-based urban designer explains how protecting and encouraging the planting of street trees will make the city more resilient to increasingly common extreme heat events, among many other benefits. After more than 10 million trees in Austin, Texas were killed by ice in last year’s winter storms, the city doubled down on efforts to prune or cut down street trees to prevent damage to power lines and energy infrastructure. Meanwhile, a slew of disparate regulations make it difficult to bury power lines to avoid conflicts with trees and discourage the inclusion of street trees in many projects affecting the public right-of-way. But is limiting the city’s tree canopy the answer, or will it exacerbate the negative impacts of extreme weather events? Kevin Howard, principal at Urbinden Design Lab, argues that protecting and enhancing Austin’s tree canopy will make the city more resilient and mitigate the effects of climate change and extreme heat. Howard explained his reasoning to Planetizen, pointing out that “Austin is expected to experience 35 additional days over 100 degrees by 2050.”

https://www.planetizen.com/features/122424-street-trees-climate-resilience