SOME RESEARCH ABOUT TREES
Prepared By Patricia Freitag Ericsson
Assistant Professor
Department of English
Scientific research tells us not to cut down mature trees! A world class research university should not be disregarding the published, peer-reviewed research that assures us of the benefits of trees! The following information is from http://www.coloradotrees.org/benefits.htm and based on over 20 research articles. I have compiled some of this research below, but much more is available at the website.
Economic benefits of trees:
Tree cover reduces AC use from 38-60%. Trees lower local air temperatures by transpiring water and shading surfaces. Because they lower air temperatures, shade buildings in the summer, and block winter winds, they can reduce building energy use and cooling costs. The evaporation from a single large tree can produce the cooling effect of 10 room size air conditioners operating 24 hours/day.
Trees reduce topsoil erosion, prevent harmful land pollutants contained in the soil from getting into our waterways, slow down water run-off, and ensure that our groundwater supplies are continually being replenished.
Mental health benefits of trees:
Studies have shown that hospital patients with a view of trees out their windows recover much faster and with fewer complications than similar patients without such views.
A Texas A&M study indicates that trees help create relaxation and well being.
Environmental benefits: Carbon sequestration:
Heat from Earth is trapped in the atmosphere due to high levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other heat-trapping gases that prohibit it from releasing heat into space -- creating a phenomenon known as the "greenhouse effect." Trees remove (sequester) CO2 from the atmosphere during photosynthesis to form carbohydrates that are used in plant structure/function and return oxygen back to the atmosphere as a byproduct. About half of the greenhouse effect is caused by CO2. Trees therefore act as a carbon sink by removing the carbon and storing it as cellulose in their trunk, branches, leaves and roots while releasing oxygen back into the air.
| | THE BOOK OF NATURE (OPINION PIECE)
by Virginia Hyde
Professor Emeritus
Department of English
Much has been said about the "spirit of place," and if it resides in any part of the landscape more than others, I have always felt it is strongest in a natural stand of trees. That is why I could scarcely believe the news that the Avery Hall grove was slated to be cut down. Not only is it a particular concentration of this "spirit of place"--of WSU--for those who take the Hello walkway but it is also a favorite spot where students read and study and where people meet for the kinds of discussions that characterize university learning--that is, in a willing community. Nothing brings people together in better harmony than scenes of beautiful nature, like this grove, and (arguably) perhaps nothing inspires deep philosophical thought more truly than such scenes. Certainly, there is a long history of the reciprocity between ourselves and the natural presences where we study and attempt to further our culture.
I'm sure this is why some of our English classes have even been conducted under the trees, and these particular trees have been cited in lectures as examples relating to nature literature. Some of our Avery classrooms look directly out to the yard, and I have often referred to the scene while teaching William Wordsworth or another such writer. Students even helped to plant "a host of golden daffodils" to join the trees in the yard, so that the scene was similar to the one described in two of Wordsworth's masterpieces. The students have looked outdoors while we read these lines (now posted on our large red oak tree): "a living thing/ Produced too slowly ever to decay;/ Of form and aspect too magnificent/ To be destroyed." It so happens that this "Wordsworth tree" survives today and is believed to be around 1000 years old. It continues to be a gathering place for presentations, lectures, and communal life. And that is the kind of focal point I see in our trees (though much younger ones).
In short, our grove is a prime example of the "Book of Nature" by which some of us teach in our various fields (as surely as by the books of words). How can it be legal to deprive us of such resources on our own ground? These are the natural influences that have shaped many of today's teachers, professors, writers (including noted ones), sports heroes, business leaders, administrators, and many others who were our students here at Avery Hall. We can produce a great crowd of them, who still have special memories of the Avery grove and who will defend it strongly.
I realize I have not made legalistic arguments--though I think they can and should be made. It seems to me that the destruction of these trees would violate WSU's own initiative that honors "sustainable resources" and would make our claim to environmental awareness look absurd. And I not doubt that some of our legal rights would be seriously assailed, but I leave that to our expert counsel. Who could have believed that a "beautification" team would cut down mature, healthy trees, with their established habitat, in order to put in brick pavement and perhaps a few new saplings? How can we even pretend to teach ecological topics in our own departments with our groves denuded? Looking at the "maps" of the future mall, who could have dreamed that it's price would be these living trees--not incorporating these that exist but replacing them with new "more desirable" plantings? I am somewhat reminded of the eighteenth-century arguments that pitted "formal" coifed and pruned gardens (as at Versailles, say) against the natural or "English" garden that grew with very much less human interference. How the greatest writers have always loved the latter! (But of course, even advocates of the formal garden only trimmed the trees and did not destroy them!)
"Nothing stands up more free from blame in this world than a pine tree" (Henry David Thoreau, Journal, 1851). I hope people will really think about that. Of course, we are not just deciding about a pile of wood (which is what the cutters see) but about what we will leave here from the "Book of Nature" for future students, faculty, visitors, donors, and others.
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