There’s a simple pleasure to walking through a neighborhood lined with big-leafy trees that shade the sidewalk, rustle gently in the wind and provide habitat for animals.
But trees are far more than just a pretty landscape feature. Among other benefits, they also block wind, provide cooling, and help to clean the air we breathe.
The advantages trees provide are not distributed evenly across neighborhoods in the Twin Cities metro area, according to a new tool from the Metropolitan Council that maps tree cover by Census block group, city, and Minneapolis and St. Paul neighborhoods.
Mapping shade
Called Growing Shade, and built as a collaboration between the Met Council, Tree Trust and the Nature Conservancy, the mapping tool allows users — whether city planners, foresters, neighborhood groups or regular people — to see tree canopy cover across the seven-county Twin Cities metro area.
While ideal canopy cover is around 45 percent, according to the Metropolitan Council, different parts of the Twin Cities fall far above or below that, with neighborhoods that are whiter and wealthier tending to have more trees.
In addition to showing tree cover, Growing Shade helps users understand how climate change, conservation, environmental justice and public health intersect with tree coverage, and where planting and maintaining trees could have the most benefits.
— Greta Kaul, MinnPost