Wednesday, November 22, 2000
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Wednesday, November 22, 2000 |
| Engineer: Urban
forestry provides a wealth of benefits
By DAVE
HAMRICK
Instead of spending millions of dollars on a new sewer plant, planners in one burb near Los Angeles decided it would be cheaper to buy every resident a new water-saving toilet. That's among numerous outside-the-box solutions to urban and suburban problems discussed at the Urban Forestry Conference in Savannah, Ga. recently. Dave Borkowski, Fayette's civil engineer, attended primarily to pick up tips for strengthening the county's tree protection ordinance, but he came away with a lot to think about, he told the county Planning Commission last week. In another example of creative thinking, he said Los Angeles planners are thinking of spending $10,000 per home to put in cisterns that will catch storm water runoff from roof drains, driveways, etc. The city spends millions of dollars a year dealing with flooding problems caused by explosive growth and the fact that, "It's about 90 percent covered with pavement," Borkowski said. The cisterns not only can help prevent flooding, but also provide water for landscape plants during dry spells, he said. "This probably wouldn't work everywhere," said Borkowski, but added that communities like Fayette can benefit from that kind of thinking. One message he came away with, he said, is that tree retention is important for a lot of reasons, not just aesthetics and air quality. The more trees an area has, he said, the more water finds its way into the ground to recharge aquifers, instead of running off and flooding streams. This reduces the cost of building detention ponds to prevent flooding, he added. Topics covered in the conference included: Use of the urban forest in storm water management. Tree ordinances. Tree protection on construction sites. "Since 1972, undeveloped land has decreased 60 percent, summer temperatures have increased 12 degrees and energy usage has increased by 4 percent in the Atlanta area," Borkowski said in summarizing. "Trees can help save energy and decrease temperature," he said, adding that the Los Angeles School system saved $20 million in air-conditioning costs by planting canopy trees at its schools. Urban forestry and better tree plans in development are essential, he said, because of the benefits to air quality, energy consumption and flood control.
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