Opinion
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Standing solution to bare landscape
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Published: January 13, 2009
Updated: 01/12/2009 08:55 pm
It's the early morning commute, and a peaceful way to start the day as the sun peeks through feathery evergreens. On the commute home, however, you are shocked to see the same landscape bare. The trees are gone. The earth is a raw red scar. What has happened? The trees have been clear cut. This development will be easier to build without the trees getting in the way.
Is this happening in Winston-Salem/Forsyth County? You bet. The Triad ranks second of 83 metro areas in the nation in urban sprawl, according to Smart Growth America, and ahead of Raleigh and Atlanta. The examples surround us from the once tree-lined Hillcrest Golf Course on Stratford Road to the forested corner of Olivet Church Road. Winston-Salem may not be a city of beautiful rivers or towering hills, but what we lack in dramatic geography, we gain in the beauty, value and environmental benefits of our trees.
Or do we? Citizens and city leaders are voicing alarm. We are losing our definitive tree canopy and the benefits that come with it day by day. We are losing it because there is nothing in place to save it. At least not yet.
A tree-preservation ordinance (www.cityofws.org/Planning), based on the recommendations of a broad-based citizen committee, has been slowly moving through the governmental process of reviews, public hearings and modifications. Unfortunately, the City-County Planning Board since October has made changes that drastically alter the intent of the tree-preservation ordinance. The planning-board version recently sent to the Winston-Salem City Council emphasizes the planting of immature trees and only requires preservation of protected trees in areas already off limits to development.
Why should we value our mature trees and work to preserve them? There are many quantifiable reasons.
Trees are one of nature's solutions to global warming, a problem the city council is committed to fighting. Soon, Forsyth County will be out of compliance with EPA smog standards ... again. Being out of compliance can be costly to our community. The American Lung Association estimates that ozone-associated health care costs Americans about $50 billion annually. The EPA can also impose restrictions locally to new and expanding industry.
Maturing trees, on the other hand, are pollution sinks, absorbing ozone, carbon monoxide and other noxious gases. Trees act as natural storm-water management controls. Tree canopies and roots slow down water flows that reduce damage to stream channels and erosion, and improve water quality. Gradual water flow allows the underground aquifers, our source of water during drought, to replenish. Shade from trees lowers water temperatures needed for many freshwater organisms to survive. Assuring adequate water supply during droughts and fixing storm-water runoff problems, however, are costly to the taxpayer.
Clear-cutting trees, mass grading and the loss of natural buffers have led to the need to upgrade storm-water infrastructure to an estimated cost of $24 million. This does not include recently annexed areas and will take, perhaps, 15 years to complete, during which time new problems will develop.
Preserving stands of maturing trees can mitigate such problems. Our community's beauty is as defining as being a City of the Arts. Clear-cutting and degradation of our tree canopy devalues our community. Homes with mature trees have 6 to 12 percent higher appraised values. Treed properties provide wildlife habitat, privacy, and reduce urban noise, glare and even stress.
In spite of all these benefits, trees keep coming down. Over a 20-year period, the area of heavy tree canopy in Atlanta, Ga., and Charlotte has been reduced by 50 percent. Both cities have significant air pollution and storm-water problems. Is this what we want for Winston-Salem/Forsyth County?
The Foothills Group of the Sierra Club supports the recommendations of the Tree Ordinance Stakeholders' Committee and the tree-preservation ordinance based on those recommendations as written by the City-County Planning Department staff and presented to the Planning Board in October 2008. That version was the consensus of many local organizations and included significant tree-preservation provisions.
There is a cost to doing so little. We see it in storm-water and air-quality problems, increased health issues, energy costs and diminished community appearance. The time is now to save what we have and preserve it for the future.
The City Council's general government committee will consider the revised tree ordinance at 4 p.m. today in the committee meeting room of City Hall. Community members who favor a tree ordinance that includes meaningful tree preservation should contact their city council representatives and Forsyth County commissioners now.
■ Elizabeth O'Meara is a member of the Tree Ordinance Stakeholders' Committee representing the Foothills Group of the Sierra Club.
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