Benefits of Trees
The benefits of trees extend far beyond the beauty they bring to the landscape. Tree give off oxygen, reduce the amount of stormwater runoff, provide protection, and offer many other social environmental, and economic benefits..
Learn more about the benefits of trees.
Social Benefits
Trees provide beauty and help people feel serene, peaceful, restful, and tranquil. They significantly reduce workplace stress and fatigue while also decreasing the recovery time following medical procedures. Green spaces can also help lower the amount of criminal activity in a community.
Communal Benefits
Trees found in urban environments often serve architectural and engineering functions by providing privacy, emphasizing views or obstructing objectionable views. With proper selection and maintenance, even trees on private property can provide benefits to the community. Trees provide privacy, accentuate views, reduce noise and glare, and even enhance architecture. Trees also bring natural elements and wildlife habitats into urban surroundings, all of which increase the quality of life for residents in the community.
Environmental Benefits
Trees alter our environment by using their leaves to filter the air we breathe by removing dust and other particles. Deciduous shade trees cool homes in the summer and allow the winter sun to heat homes when they lose their leaves. Trees can serve as a windbreak. The more compact the foliage on the group of trees the more effective the windbreak.
Economic Benefits
While many people understand the benefits of trees, very few realize trees have a dollar value that can be measured. Tree appraisal is a process that may help you find out what your trees and plants are worth.
An arborist can help a homeowner determine the value of trees by providing an appraisal. If your trees or shrubs are damaged or destroyed, you may be able to recapture your loss through an insurance claim or as a deduction from your federal income tax.
Learn more about the value of trees
Maximizing the Benefits of Trees
Maximizing a tree’s benefits requires routine maintenance. A professional in the tree, nursery or landscape industry, or a landscape architect can help you plan, install, and care for all of your trees and plants so that each of them will be worth more. While some homeowners may want to remove a tree, the cost associated with tree removal and planting a young tree can outweigh the cost of regular tree maintenance practices such as tree inspection, pruning, and mulching.
Learn more about mature tree care