Benefits of Trees
Trees are major capital assets in villages, towns and cities across the United Kingdom. Just as public buildings and recreational facilities are a part of a community's infrastructure, so are publicly owned trees. Trees in the urban area, more collectively known as the urban forest, are important assets that require care and maintenance the same as other public property. Trees are on the job 24 hours every day working for all of us to improve our environment and quality of life.
Walsall's urban forest provides many environmental benefits to it's visitors and residents. Aside from the obvious aesthetic benefits, trees within the urban forest improve our air, protect our water, save energy, and improve economic sustainability.
Like many areas of the UK, the tree canopy cover in Walsall decreases along a rural to urban gradient. In other words,as the urban areas have been developed many trees have been lost or replaced with smaller less beneficial species, whereas many of our more rural and "green" areas have been managed and in some cases enhanced by tree planting projects.
Therefore, estimated pollutant uptake rates are lower for residential areas compared to natural or unmanaged lands. Possible management implications of these estimates are that air pollutant uptake benefits from tree planting may be optimized by planting in areas where air pollutant concentrations are elevated and where relatively high planting densities can be achieved thereby enhancing the health of urban dwellers.Bottom line - trees are more important in residential areas for improving residents health and shouldn't be considered a "visitor attraction".
Here is a link to further information about tree benefits:
If you have an enquiry about this information or generally about trees please contact trees@walsall.gov.uk
This page was last updated on 30 January 2008