A tree canopy program launches in north St. Louis County to help improve air quality
The Nature Conservancy in Missouri will plant 100 trees in parts of north St. Louis County to help reduce air pollution, heat islands and floods through a tree canopy program.
Through the Treesilience initiative, the conservancy will work with Forest Releaf of Missouri and the community development organization Beyond Housing to remove dead, dying or hazardous trees on private properties located in some neighborhoods in north St. Louis County. For every tree removed, foresters and volunteers will plant two new trees.
People who live in some communities in north St. Louis County suffer from high rates of asthma-related hospitalizations and other respiratory illnesses because of poor air quality, said Doug Seely, a community forester for Beyond Housing.
“As we increase the tree canopy, each one of those leaves becomes a little air filter,” Seely said. “So the more leaves that we have out there, the more particulate matter we can take out of the air, which keeps it from getting into the lungs of our youth and our elderly, which can help alleviate some of those health issues like asthma.”
https://news.stlpublicradio.org/health-science-environment/2021-12-06/a-tree-canopy-program-launches-in-north-st-louis-county-to-help-improve-air-quality