Some facts about the value of trees to help property businessmen, who may read this, realise that their actions in clearing them actually have a bigger negative impact than they think -–

• A good street tree can add 30% to your property value.
• A street full of good leafy street trees is a real estate agent’s pleasure because all houses will sell for more than the same kind of house in the same kind of condition in a street that does not have street trees, or has poor quality street trees.
• Street trees provide a buffer from traffic & collect particulate matter pollution from passing vehicles.  Without this buffer, that particulate matter pollution is much more likely to reach your lungs.
• Particulate matter causes lung irritation, respiratory illnesses & impairs airway function. It also can cause irregular heartbeat, heart attacks & premature death in people with heart or lung disease.  It also collects on buildings.
• The shade of a tree can reduce air temperature by 1 – 8 degrees Celsius.
• The canopy acts as a buffer for wind & can reduce wind speed by 10%.
• A street tree can save up to $400 on your annual power bill.
• Trees are nature’s air conditioners & they cool down surface heat & lower the urban heat island effect.
• Trees also sequester Carbon Dioxide and produce Oxygen.
• They help capture stormwater.
• Trees provide habitat & food for wildlife.
• People are happier when in leafy green streets.
• People are happier and have less depression when able to be around trees.

In summer in streets with both pedestrians and vehicle movements, it will become hotter walking around there without trees.  You do not enrich the streetscape; instead, you destroy part of it: a terrible way to treat both the environment and the community to whom the trees belong.