
The importance of your trees are often mistaken. Trees are nature’s air conditioners. In one year the average tree inhales 26 pounds of carbon dioxide, the amount emitted by a car on a 17,600 kilometer trip. This same tree will in turn exhale enough oxygen to keep a family of 4 breathing for a year. Your trees treat the carbon dioxide they take in.
The foliage uses the carbon in the gas to make sugars and starches. The leftover oxygen is released back into the air. We could not sit here today and breathe the clean air we are breathing without our trees. Trees are the greatest collectors of the sun’s energy. Most of the trees energy comes from the sun and our trees collect and store more of this energy than anything else in the world. The benefits of trees can be divided into two general areas. Direct benefits and indirect benefits. Direct benefits such as shade or increased property value.
Indirect benefits impact you, the tree owner, and the community in real, but in less tangible ways. In fact, indirect benefits from trees are more numerous than direct benefits. These benefits include filtration and absorption of air pollutants, reduced storm water runoff, storing of greenhouse gas carbon dioxide and the beneficial impact on the general quality of life. Perhaps the greatest contribution our trees make is an emotional one.
People who live in cities brighten up at the site of a tree, the scrawniest saplings challenging the concrete. Silently in our minds they rise as symbols of stability, dignity, adventure, comfort and knowledge. Maybe we should stop for a moment and wonder how many trees will be left for our children and grandchildren. As someone once said “Your family, your friends, your trees you take for granted you will always have these until you don’t!