About the project- what the trees do

This idea was what started our project; we needed a way to show Davidson town people how much trees help the community.

In our “We Speak for the Trees” 8^th grade practicum at Community School of Davidson, we teamed up with the Davidson Lands’ Conservancy, Davidson College student Nick Wilder, and members of the Davidson Natural Assets Board. The help of these experts was an important piece of the puzzle because without knowledge of tree species we would not have been able to begin this process.

What we learned…

In this project we learned how much trees are worth in our environment, and how much we need to value them. The main parts that make trees so valuable including savings in:

·         Property Value

·         Storm water absorbing

·         C02

·         Natural Gas

·         Electricity

Some large trees (like oaks) in Davidson save over 250 dollars a year and absorb over 2,000 gallons of storm water depending on the trees’ root system. To figure out the trees’ value, we went on http://treebenefits.com and entered the trees’ diameter (you have to measure the circumference of the tree, then you have to divide the circumference by pi to find the diameter), location (define the environment the tree is in, for example  in a park, small commercial business, or single family residence), and species (we had the help of Mr. Brawley frrm the Davidson Lands Conservancy and Mr. McMillan from Davidson Public Works to identify these).

In the data we collected we found that property value and storm water save the most money -these are both key parts in a tree because storm water absorbs storm water, which makes less go down the sewer system causing less water treatment. Property Value is important because a big nice tree in your front lawn will make your house value go up making you get more bang for your buck. After researching many trees I found some of the most important trees in the town of Davidson are the Oaks in the park since they each save nearly $300 dollars a year! We believe this will help residents respect trees and be inspired to plant more.