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    Green Columbus, American Forests Release Tree Equity Tool

    By any metric, the tree cover over Columbus is abysmal. Now, thanks to Green Columbus and American Forests, the average citizen has a free, accessible tool to examine just how bad the tree canopy is in their neighborhood compared with others, and how much that lack of tree coverage is impacting their health and wellbeing. 

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    Earlier this month, the Washington D.C. based nonprofit American Forests released a tree equity score analyzer specifically for Franklin County. The free digital app allows a user to zoom into each neighborhood down to the parcel level, where every block group is given a tree equity score out of 100. The equity score is not based solely on how many trees are planted in a specific parcel or neighborhood, but also on a number of social factors like the health index, the poverty rate, and racial composition. 

    “It’s not just about the tree canopy but it’s also about those socioeconomic factors,” said Shelly Douglas, executive director of Green Columbus. “So an area that has 20% tree canopy in German Village and an area that has 20% tree canopy in the South Side community are not going to be scored the same because they have different socioeconomic factors.”

    According to Joshua Simon, senior manager of community engagement at American Forests, the data used to build the analyzer came from the city, MORPC, local public health departments, and other sources. It’s not the first set of data to find wide disparities in heat between Columbus neighborhoods, mirroring the results of the August 2022 heat island study.

    Those same disparities are apparent in the tree equity analyzer. The section of Whitehall just below Fifth Avenue has a tree equity score of 68, with 6% tree canopy and a population of more than 1,100 people. Just north is the John Glenn International Airport, with a tree equity score of 82, canopy cover at 8%, and an estimated population of 5. Places like Clintonville, Bexley and German Village have scores in the 90s, while places like Franklinton, Hilltop and Milo-Grogan fare poorly with scores in the 60s and 70s. 

    “We knew that things like redlining and historic disinvestment had led to communities not having enough trees, but now we can actually visually see, this census block, this parcel needs trees more than this one,” said Douglas. 

    Simon, who lived in Columbus before joining American Forests, said the data resonated with his experience here, but also that it follows a clear pattern—neighborhoods with lower incomes and higher concentrations of people of color tend to be hotter with less tree canopy. 

    “If you look at any city in the U.S., a lot of this really aligns. It’s just a matter of what sides of town, or what neighborhoods within those cities,” said Simon. “After doing this work in so many other communities, you start to see it’s a lot of the same thing…It’s just a matter of how it connects to the local residents.” 

    The release of the tree equity score analyzer comes at a time when Columbus is working in earnest to expand its tree coverage from 22% to 40% by 2050. To that end, in 2021 the city adopted an Urban Forestry Master Plan, which Simon worked on as a graduate student. Now, Douglas and Simon hope the tree equity score analyzer will help focus the city’s efforts on planting trees where they’re needed most. 

    “I hope they take the tool and see that there’s definitely room for tree investment…make sure they’re planting trees in areas that have lower scores or were in the previous years maybe left out of those initial conversations,” said Simon. “The goal is to get everyone to 100. And it’s a lofty goal but I think it’s one of those options that we always have something to strive for.” 

    The city also recently began overhauling its tree code protections, hoping to prevent further canopy loss. According to Simon, the app has a feature which may help in this regard as well. 

    “In our early iterations of tests people were saying, ‘Well what if I don’t want to plant, what if I want to protect what’s potentially gonna be lost?’” said Simon. “So there’s a tab there where you can see what your existing tree canopy benefits are.” 

    The app can tell a user how planting trees in a certain parcel will improve their equity score, sequester carbon pollution and prevent stormwater runoff. But the same feature can also show a user what the reverse effects will be if existing trees are removed. 

    Douglas and Simon hope that average citizens will use the app to learn just how unfair the tree canopy—and all the effects related to it—can be between Columbus neighborhoods. 

    “We want people to know that trees are for our health and all of these things listed on the tool are affected by trees,” said Douglas. “When they see that this isn’t just environment, it’s hotter in our neighborhood, our utility costs are higher, we have more flooding, the air pollution is worse, they start to feel passionate about speaking up for their community and recognizing that that’s an injustice, so we hope that this tool and this data being public will help put words to what they need for their community and just kind of make it understandable.” 

    Ultimately, repairing the city’s tree canopy is really about how Columbus will face a hotter future. 

    “We want people to be able to use this tool…and come together and collaborate and plant more trees, but also find ways to care for those trees after they’re planted, so in 20 years we can see, ‘Oh I’m glad I planted this tree back in 2024,’” said Simon. “That way we’re not having some of these extreme heats or summers 20 years down the road.” 

    Click here to view the Tree Equity Score Analyzer for Columbus and Franklin County.

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    Jesse Bethea
    Jesse Betheahttps://columbusunderground.com
    Jesse Bethea is a freelance features writer at Columbus Underground covering neighborhood issues, economics, science, technology and other topics. He is a graduate from Ohio University, a native of Fairfax, Virginia and a fan of movies, politics and baseball. Jesse is the winner of The Great Novel Contest and the author of Fellow Travellers, available now at all major retailers.
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