CAGIS Virtual Seminar, Thurs. Sept. 30: The State of Charlotte’s Tree Canopy 2021

Charlotte is famously a “City of Trees”, and exhibits one of the highest urban tree canopy coverages among large US cities. Working quietly in the background, our tree canopy supports environmental health by reducing heat and greenhouse gasses, improving air quality, and regulating stormwater to the tune of over $500 million each year.
However, new analyses reveal that these benefits generated are not distributed evenly across the City, and ongoing losses associated with the post-recession development boom threaten decade-old initiatives to preserve the City’s character and employ canopy as a hedge to climate risks.
Listen-in as our Director of Research and Engagment conducts a wide-ranging survey of Charlotte’s urban forest (a combination of yet-to-be published original research and meta-analyses) we look at factors driving losses, the legacy of redlining, and ask the question, “Can we plant our way out of this mess?”