Volunteers at a Harrisburg tree planting in April.
After an unexpected wind and hailstorm hit Harrisburg in June, city forester Cody Legge had a big job on his hands.
Trees were damaged and downed across the city, and Legge and his team were tasked with inspecting the remainder, determining if they were healthy enough to remain standing or if they needed to be removed.
This is a regular part of Legge’s job, although he’s usually not inspecting so many trees in one week. All around the city, trees are always aging, sustaining damage and dying. Removing them may be what’s best for public safety, but Legge has noticed a concerning trend—lately Harrisburg has been losing more trees than it’s gaining.
Trees are vital to the city and provide numerous benefits, Legge said, which is why their loss is something he hopes to reverse.
Other local organizations are also working to plant more trees and to educate the community on their benefits. With growing concern around climate change and the way it impacts our world, local officials say that trees are a significant player in the fight against global warming.
“They’re not always viewed as an asset, but they are,” Legge said. “They can make a big impact.”
Green Power
Emma Bast, an attorney with the environmental advocacy organization, PennFuture, knows that temperatures are going up and summers are going to keep getting hotter.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Pennsylvania is expected to warm another 5.9 degrees by 2050 and may experience more days above 95 degrees than the state has historically seen.
“We know that, with climate change, it’s possible to mitigate the effect of it,” Bast said. “In urban environments like Harrisburg, trees can have a number of really positive environmental impacts.”
One of the greatest impacts comes from the carbon dioxide that trees absorb during photosynthesis, Legge explained. Trees store carbon and release oxygen, thereby reducing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, while improving air quality.
Along Harrisburg’s riverfront, near the Walnut Street Bridge, the city recently added informational signs near several large trees. A large red oak has absorbed around 41,000 pounds of carbon in its lifetime, one sign reads.
Legge said that the city calculated the benefits of the trees using a free online program called i-Tree. Anyone can use the program to determine the effects of any tree on elements like carbon uptake, stormwater mitigation, air pollution removal and energy cost savings.
Stormwater mitigation is another superpower of trees, Bast explained. PennFuture is a strong advocate of innovative, green infrastructure. In Harrisburg, this often comes in the form of rain gardens, which absorb stormwater runoff and rainwater, and in the form of trees, which soak up rainwater and help prevent flooding. According to the EPA, the leaf canopies of trees can even help reduce erosion as rain droplets bounce off leaves rather than directly hitting the ground.
According to the city’s informational signs along the riverfront, a single large American sycamore has intercepted 259,000 gallons of rainfall and helped avoid over 54,000 gallons of stormwater runoff.
In urban environments like Harrisburg, trees are also great at reducing the heat island effect by providing shade. In the greenest city neighborhoods, such as Bellevue Park, the difference in heat can be very noticeable, Legge said. This is part of the reason why the city plants trees in groups, rather than sporadically placing them around the city, he added. Larger quantities grouped together have the potential to make a greater difference.
“You can make a big impact on a whole block,” Legge said.
Culture of Conservation
Since 2018, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation has worked to make the commonwealth greener with its “10 Million Trees” initiative. The program is more than halfway to its goal, which it aims to meet by the end of 2025.
“Our goal is to get a tree into the hands of anyone who is willing to plant it,” said Joe Hallinan, the foundation’s Keystone Trees Pennsylvania Partnership manager and a self-proclaimed “tree hugger.”
The initiative obtains trees and supplies through grant funding and then distributes them to local partner organizations, which pass out free trees to community members and landowners. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s hope is that, the more trees, the more nitrogen is taken into plants and out of waterways.
Equally important to Hallinan, however, is the potential to provide education and “normalize a culture of conservation.”
“Sometimes, when it comes to climate change, we pass the buck because it feels like too big of an issue for us to address individually,” he said. “With this initiative, we are enabling each person to plant a tree.”
Since 2018, the initiative has planted 10,734 trees in Dauphin County.
Harrisburg also has its own plantings, one each fall and spring. At its most recent event, volunteers helped put 120 trees into the ground.
The city is specifically aiming to plant more trees in east Allison Hill and South Harrisburg, where canopy cover is sparser, Legge said.
And while residents are welcome to plant a tree on their private property, or along the street with a city permit, Legge suggests that those who want to make a difference in reversing the city’s loss of trees should volunteer at a planting.
“Volunteering is probably the best way people can get involved,” he said. “It’s pretty rewarding.”
For more information on Harrisburg’s Shade Tree Program, visit www.harrisburgpa.gov/parks-recreation-facilities/trees-3.
PennFuture’s central office is located at 610 N. 3rd St., Harrisburg. For more information, visit www.pennfuture.org.
To learn more about the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s “10 Million Trees” project or to get involved, visit www.tenmilliontrees.org.
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