“There is a magic machine that sucks carbon out of the air, costs very little, and builds itself.
It’s called a tree.”
-- George Monbiot, British writer and activist
Canopy Connectors:
Connecting Trees and People
Unity Church-Unitarian is located in the Summit-University neighborhood. In an effort to respond to the negative effects of climate change and the loss of ash trees in our area, Unity’s “Canopy Connectors” built a gravel bed in May 2021 to serve as a nursery for bare root trees destined for the Summit-University-Rondo neighborhood. Twenty five trees were planted in the bed; by fall these trees will have healthy root systems that will assure safe transplantation to their permanent homes.
Our neighborhood has a tree canopy cover of 30.5% of land area, 2% lower than the St. Paul city average of 32.5%. According to a University of Minnesota analysis, 66.2% of Saint Paul is suitable for tree canopy cover, with residential and single family properties offering the best potential for increasing canopy.
Trees are beautiful, but they are also critical to our health and the health of our environment. They help reduce air pollution, enhance our water quality, and improve energy savings in both summer and winter. Most importantly, perhaps, trees remove carbon from the air, and are critical to efforts to lessen the effects of carbon emissions on climate change. And trees have been shown to increase property values.
23% of the Summit-University neighborhood’s street trees are ash. The Emerald Ash Borer infestation, and the subsequent loss of these trees, is devastating. Replacing them with a diversity of trees is a step we can take together.
Our neighborhood has a tree canopy cover of 30.5% of land area, 2% lower than the St. Paul city average of 32.5%. According to a University of Minnesota analysis, 66.2% of Saint Paul is suitable for tree canopy cover, with residential and single family properties offering the best potential for increasing canopy.
Trees are beautiful, but they are also critical to our health and the health of our environment. They help reduce air pollution, enhance our water quality, and improve energy savings in both summer and winter. Most importantly, perhaps, trees remove carbon from the air, and are critical to efforts to lessen the effects of carbon emissions on climate change. And trees have been shown to increase property values.
23% of the Summit-University neighborhood’s street trees are ash. The Emerald Ash Borer infestation, and the subsequent loss of these trees, is devastating. Replacing them with a diversity of trees is a step we can take together.