metro
10-18-2007, 10:43 AM
OKC aims to rejuvenate its ‘green canopy’
October 18, 2007
OKLAHOMA CITY – The Oklahoma City Council recently approved funding for a tree inventory to determine whether the city has lost its green canopy over the last 100 years.“
This will give us some idea of how much vegetation we’ve removed and haven’t put back as we’ve been settling and developing the city,” City Planner Aubrey Hammontree said after the $10,000 project was approved.
The task, which is expected to take three to six months to complete, is being undertaken not only for beautification, but for environmental and economic reasons as well, she said.
City planners are looking at the possibility of drafting new tree preservation policies. For example, she said, “There’s the benefit of storm water runoff control – you don’t have to do nearly as much engineering for storm water management when you have open space and trees, and that’s good for the site itself as well as the environment overall.“Then there’s the cooling aspect and filtering pollutants from the air and increasing oxygen quality. When you have vegetation and cover near the ground, you don’t have as much heat building up in the pavement and building horrible heat islands. … You can save in heating and cooling costs when you have trees in the right places protecting your buildings,” Hammontree said. “So there’s actually a monetary value associated with this.”
The city revamped its landscape ordinance in 2003 and incentives were introduced to protect so-called significant trees, or those with trunks at least 6 inches in diameter. But land developers don’t always know the best ways to work around larger trees and they get bulldozed anyway, Hammontree said.
In order to improve the city’s preservation efforts, planners have been looking closely at similar cities’ ordinances. Some Texas communities “really go gung-ho to protect their trees,” Hammontree said, citing San Antonio, Austin and Houston as examples.
City planners also are studying cities with similar environments and tree sparseness, such as Little Rock, Ark.; Plano, Texas; Boise, Idaho; and Omaha, Neb.“We want to craft a tree preservation ordinance specifically to Oklahoma City’s needs,” she said.
Using historic surveying records and photos, city planners will be able to pinpoint older stands of trees and determine how much forest is necessary to keep the local ecosystem in balance. When natural resources are diminished beyond a certain point, an ecosystem can no longer sustain itself.“We’ll be able to develop policies to restore and protect those natural areas … like raising standards for planting new trees or preserving significant trees that are already there,” Hammontree said.
Species most likely to have been around for 100 years are blackjack oaks and post oaks, which form the basis of crosstimbers forests, she said. “They usually look kind of scraggly and small, so people don’t realize how old and important they are,” Hammontree said.
Regardless, “If people are going to be outside, recreating, then they want trees around. It creates an entirely different social dynamic and behavior,” she said.
In an unrelated project, state Forester John Burwell recently started a statewide inventory of Oklahoma’s forest resources. The Forest Inventory and Analysis program is funded by a U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service grant through the state agriculture department. The state inventory is expected to take three to five years to complete. Officials said the resulting data about tree species, their volume and general health will benefit economic and environmental management programs. The timber industry has a $2.4 billion annual effect on the state’s economy, the department has reported, largely due to private landowners selling access to their resources to lumber companies.
City and state officials haven’t made any predictions on tree numbers. Hammontree said, “It’ll probably shock people, one way or another.”
http://journalrecord.com/_images/articles/t_labsokc%20trees%20-%20jp.jpg
Trees on the northeast side of Oklahoma City grow from a shallow pool of water at the corner of an office building recently. (Photo by Jennifer Pitts)
October 18, 2007
OKLAHOMA CITY – The Oklahoma City Council recently approved funding for a tree inventory to determine whether the city has lost its green canopy over the last 100 years.“
This will give us some idea of how much vegetation we’ve removed and haven’t put back as we’ve been settling and developing the city,” City Planner Aubrey Hammontree said after the $10,000 project was approved.
The task, which is expected to take three to six months to complete, is being undertaken not only for beautification, but for environmental and economic reasons as well, she said.
City planners are looking at the possibility of drafting new tree preservation policies. For example, she said, “There’s the benefit of storm water runoff control – you don’t have to do nearly as much engineering for storm water management when you have open space and trees, and that’s good for the site itself as well as the environment overall.“Then there’s the cooling aspect and filtering pollutants from the air and increasing oxygen quality. When you have vegetation and cover near the ground, you don’t have as much heat building up in the pavement and building horrible heat islands. … You can save in heating and cooling costs when you have trees in the right places protecting your buildings,” Hammontree said. “So there’s actually a monetary value associated with this.”
The city revamped its landscape ordinance in 2003 and incentives were introduced to protect so-called significant trees, or those with trunks at least 6 inches in diameter. But land developers don’t always know the best ways to work around larger trees and they get bulldozed anyway, Hammontree said.
In order to improve the city’s preservation efforts, planners have been looking closely at similar cities’ ordinances. Some Texas communities “really go gung-ho to protect their trees,” Hammontree said, citing San Antonio, Austin and Houston as examples.
City planners also are studying cities with similar environments and tree sparseness, such as Little Rock, Ark.; Plano, Texas; Boise, Idaho; and Omaha, Neb.“We want to craft a tree preservation ordinance specifically to Oklahoma City’s needs,” she said.
Using historic surveying records and photos, city planners will be able to pinpoint older stands of trees and determine how much forest is necessary to keep the local ecosystem in balance. When natural resources are diminished beyond a certain point, an ecosystem can no longer sustain itself.“We’ll be able to develop policies to restore and protect those natural areas … like raising standards for planting new trees or preserving significant trees that are already there,” Hammontree said.
Species most likely to have been around for 100 years are blackjack oaks and post oaks, which form the basis of crosstimbers forests, she said. “They usually look kind of scraggly and small, so people don’t realize how old and important they are,” Hammontree said.
Regardless, “If people are going to be outside, recreating, then they want trees around. It creates an entirely different social dynamic and behavior,” she said.
In an unrelated project, state Forester John Burwell recently started a statewide inventory of Oklahoma’s forest resources. The Forest Inventory and Analysis program is funded by a U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service grant through the state agriculture department. The state inventory is expected to take three to five years to complete. Officials said the resulting data about tree species, their volume and general health will benefit economic and environmental management programs. The timber industry has a $2.4 billion annual effect on the state’s economy, the department has reported, largely due to private landowners selling access to their resources to lumber companies.
City and state officials haven’t made any predictions on tree numbers. Hammontree said, “It’ll probably shock people, one way or another.”
http://journalrecord.com/_images/articles/t_labsokc%20trees%20-%20jp.jpg
Trees on the northeast side of Oklahoma City grow from a shallow pool of water at the corner of an office building recently. (Photo by Jennifer Pitts)