A🌲L - Atlanta loves its trees. Way more than I expected!
One of the things I learned while in ATL this month was the amount of pride the city takes in its trees. While I was there they had just designated seven acres of urban land to be forested, adding to their urban tree canopy that covers almost half the city!
My own bias led me to underestimate Atlanta’s greenness, but it’s got double the tree cover of Eugene!
I got pretty obsessed with the Urban Tree Cover stat when I got back, so I looked up a bunch of cities I had ties to.
🍑 Atlanta - 47%
🌲 Portland - 30%
🌧 Seattle - 28%
🌴 Santa Barbara - 25%
🌲 Eugene - 23%
🏔 Denver - 20%
🏙 Philadelphia - 20%
🌴 Los Angeles - 17%
🏙 Chicago - 15%
🌴 San Diego - 13%
Sadly, my current home is at the bottom of the list. Trees are correlated with better physical health, mental health, and reduced poverty in both rural and urban settings.
Lots of San Diegans would fairly point out the double layered challenge of water. But studies show that SD can healthily grow up to a 35-40% tree cover if it grows the right species.
I did come across plans and proposals to move in that direction. Sure hope it happens!
Thanks for coming to my random geek out session of the week.