Arbor Day Foundation

The hottest May on record for Miami has experts worried about the summer — and hurricane season — to come. The heat index reached 112 degrees on both last Saturday and Sunday, breaking the previous daily record by an astonishing 11 degrees 🌡☀️ https://lnkd.in/gBwPhrp9

Trees are ~cool~ No really, urban areas with trees can be as much as 15 degrees cooler than areas with less tree cover 🌡☀️ One reason for this dramatic difference in temperatures is that dark-colored roads and rooftops get scorchingly hot when the sun shines down on them. Then those surfaces release the heat they’ve absorbed back into the surrounding air. By shading streets and buildings, trees help keep those surfaces from getting so warm. Trees also help cool the air around them by taking water out of the ground and releasing it through their leaves as water vapor, a process called transpiration.

On this #WorldBeeDay, we're shouting our love of bees from the treetops. These hard-working pollinators are responsible for about one out of every three bites of food we eat and 80% of the world’s flowering plants. So that almond milk latte you can’t live without? It's all thanks to bees. And your apple and peanut butter snack? Bees did that. And the gorgeous flowers growing in your garden? Yep, bees. Chocolate, vanilla, Brazil nuts, cardamom, sunflowers, lavender, and so many more plants rely on bees for pollination. Take today to celebrate these small, amazing creatures. And if you have the space, grow a pollinator garden. The bees will bzzz bzzzz bzz (thank you).

Want to clean the air and water, reduce flooding, and buffer wind? Plant trees. Want to improve the health of communities? Plant trees. Want to combat food insecurity? Plant trees. Want to create jobs and impact local economies? Plant trees. Wait, what? Jobs? Yes, trees create quite a few jobs, especially in under-resourced communities. Here are some facts: 👉 More than 500,000 people are employed as a result of urban forestry activities 👉 For every $1 million invested in urban forestry, 25 forest-related jobs are created 👉The urban forestry sector has a total sales and employment footprint of $64 billion Arborists, researchers, loggers, farmers, forest and urban forestry tree planters — these are some of the jobs that planting more trees create. But there’s plenty more where that came from. Because #ATreeCanBe opportunity for a more prosperous future.

Let’s hear it for trees and their amazing healing abilities this #MentalHealthAwarenessMonth 💚 👉 Living within 100 meters of a tree reduces rates of depression 👉 Urbanites with adequate access to green space experience 31% less emotional distress 👉 For every 1% increase in green space, city dwellers experience a corresponding decline in stress levels 👉 Children who live near sufficient green space have a lower risk of developing mental health issues in adulthood

As global temperatures rise, so does the “urban heat island effect”—the tendency for cities to absorb and hold on to the sun’s energy, which is a growing public-health crisis worldwide. On a small scale, the shade under a single tree is an invaluable refuge on a blisteringly hot day. Scaling that effect up, neighborhoods with more tree cover are measurably cooler. A new paper finds that in Los Angeles, planting more trees and deploying more reflective surfaces could lower temperatures so dramatically, it’d cut the number of heat-related ER visits by up to 66%. https://lnkd.in/gy9ymC9E

Now that's how you celebrate 60 years! 🌱🎉 Over our 15 years of partnership with Mary Kay Global, 1.3 million trees have been planted across the globe 💪 And thanks to their dedication and commitment, they aren't stopping there. Here's to many more years of giving back, making an impact, and protecting our planet.

Take a long, deep, satisfying breath. Every tree is hard at work removing carbon from the air and turning it into life-sustaining oxygen. And since most living things need oxygen to grow and thrive, having lots of trees on the planet is kind of a big deal. Fun fact: one mature tree produces a day’s supply of oxygen for up to four people. There are more than 8 billion breathing people on the planet, which means it takes more than 2 billion trees to produce the daily amount of oxygen everyone needs. That’s not even counting other living things that also get some of their oxygen from trees, which requires billions more trees. It’s tree math.

Over 150,000 trees planted in California’s Eldorado National Forest 💪 In 2021 the Caldor Fire blazed across thousands of acres and consumed untold numbers of trees in nearby communities. Years later, recovery efforts are still underway to bring new life to the burn scar. This project worked to replant a mix of pine species who will help return the habitat for species who depend on trees on the area like : 🐻black bears 🐆bobcats 🐦Stellar’s jays 🦅bald eagles Tree by tree, together we’re restoring forests and creating a healthier, more resilient planet.

In the northern part of Nashville sits Parkwood Estates, a neighborhood that houses generational stories. But like other majority-minority communities, Parkwood Estates has felt the rejection of disinvestment year after year. They’ve also suffered the effects of climate change as summers get hotter with parks and green spaces few and far between, creating a heat island effect. One local non-profit, the Cumberland River Compact’s Root Nashville initiative envisioned a grassroots effort to engage residents to plant free trees, thanks to a grant from the Arbor Day Foundation. 12 neighborhoods were identified where planting efforts would be prioritized. The initiative was launched in the Parkwood Estates neighborhood, where 100 volunteers mostly made up of residents, got their hands in the dirt and planted 300 trees. Many more planting events are scheduled in other low-income neighborhoods. What grows out of this is an opportunity for residents to have a hand in shaping the future of their communities. 🔗 https://lnkd.in/gW_daNr2