Enhanced Quality of Life
Visit a park on a hot, sunny summer day and you will quickly notice most people enjoying the space are doing so in the comfort of large shade trees. In fact, this trend transcends space and can be found all over town – in parking lots, college campuses, neighborhood, city streets and more. The shade from trees not only provides cooler temperatures but the opportunity to enjoy the natural environment with protection from the sun and its harmful rays. Shade provided by trees is a welcome relief in hot climates and has a direct cooling effect on high temperatures.
Trees provide shade and help cool the air.
Trees can help cool the "heat island" effect in our inner cities. These islands result from storage of thermal energy in concrete, steel and asphalt. Heat islands are 3 to 10 degrees warmer than the surrounding countryside. The collective effect of a large area of transpiring trees (evaporating water) reduces the air temperature in these areas
Trees create and foster wildlife and plant diversity.
Trees and associated plants create local ecosystems that provide habitat and food for birds and animals. They offer suitable mini-climates for other plants that would otherwise be absent from urban areas. Biodiversity is an important part of urban forestry.
Trees absorb and block noise from the urban environment.
Trees act as natural noise buffers. Acting as shields, trees reduce the intensity of the sound waves considerably and it is the sound produced by the wind passing through the leaves that really helps muffle noise.
Trees add natural beauty.
Trees build natural character in our cities and towns providing shape, form and texture. They create a natural screen for unsightly yet necessary areas including parking decks, retention ponds, trash collection areas and more. Trees help to soften the outline of buildings and can be used architecturally to provide space definition and landscape continuity.
Trees enhance our mood and improve our outlook.
Trees provide psychological benefits impossible to measure. Healthy trees growing where people live and work is an essential element of the health. Trees create feelings of relaxation and well-being and have even been linked to shortened post-operative hospital stays when patients’ rooms have views of trees and open spaces.
"Trees properly placed to cool urban heat-islands can lower the temperatures as much as 5 degrees F." ~American Forests
Select SustainablePlus Trees provide all of these benefits and more.
Selected to thrive in the urban environment, Select SustainablePlus Shade Trees are proven to be drought tolerant, disease and insect resistant, make efficient use of nutrients and water, and grow at a healthy, vigorous rate. Select SustainablePlus Shade Trees are root cloned from superior genetics, cultured in an extreme nursery environment, and are proven to grow at the same rate, reach the same height, and leaf and color at the same time. Select Sustainable Trees are predictable and dependable large, shade landscape specimens.