{"id":58813,"date":"2023-07-13T12:21:56","date_gmt":"2023-07-13T19:21:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=58813"},"modified":"2023-07-13T12:21:56","modified_gmt":"2023-07-13T19:21:56","slug":"more-parks-trees-may-add-nearly-1-million-years-to-la-county-life-expectancy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=58813","title":{"rendered":"More Parks, Trees May Add Nearly 1 Million Years to LA County Life Expectancy"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By<\/span>Selen Ozturk<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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A UCLA study confirms what the urban greening nonprofit TreePeople has seen for 50 years: environmental inequality worsens public health in LA County.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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TreePeople staff and volunteers planting trees along Croesus Ave in Watts, CA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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(Above: In 2021, TreePeople planted 700 trees in Watts, as part of its 50-year effort to address environmental inequality. Credit: TreePeople)<\/em><\/p>\n

A recent UCLA study found that bringing green space in LA County to median levels could add up to 908,800 years of collective life expectancy to residents in under-resourced communities.<\/p>\n

The peer-reviewed study, published in\u00a0Environment International<\/a>, is the first in the U.S. to combine census tract life expectancy data with neighborhood vegetation data, providing Southern California policymakers with a model of reducing health inequality by greening low-income neighborhoods.<\/p>\n

Researchers found that bringing greenery to median levels in each census tract would bring between 570,300 and 908,800 years of collective life expectancy to disadvantaged residents. Greening wealthy Westside neighborhoods was not found to significantly affect expectancy after controlling for variables like smoking, obesity and physical inactivity.<\/p>\n

Keep cool, plant trees<\/h2>\n

For some, however, the findings of this study are not new:\u00a0TreePeople<\/a>, a nonprofit which describes itself as \u201cthe largest environmental movement headquartered in Southern California,\u201d has been researching, restoring, and replanting urban greenery in environmentally stressed LA County areas for 50 years.<\/p>\n

Eileen Garcia, Director of Community Forestry at TreePeople, said that since 1973, over three million volunteers have planted trees and seen firsthand how a community\u2019s green inequality worsens environmental and public health conditions like pollution and heat-related illness.<\/p>\n

The UCLA study confirmed that trees were the most effective component of urban forestation when it came to heat mitigation, keeping ground-level temperatures about 2 degrees Fahrenheit cooler with each 10% of canopy cover. Shrubs cooled by 0.7 Fahrenheit with each 10% of cover.<\/p>\n

In LA County, which spans 10 million people across 4,000 square miles, two-thirds of the Black and Latino population lives in areas with disproportionately less green vegetation \u2014 namely east LA, south LA, and far north areas.<\/p>\n

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TreePeople volunteers prepare the site of a tree to be planted in Watts, one of the many areas of Los Angeles County where UCLA researchers have recently connected increased greenery to increased life expectancy.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The UCLA study found that merely expanding park access to LA County medians would add 164,700 years of life expectancy to the region. Latino and Black residents would receive about 72%, or 118,000 of these years.<\/p>\n

Though TreePeople mostly focuses its efforts on drought-tolerant street tree species like crepe myrtle and gold medallion, parks \u2014 like Coldwater Canyon in the Santa Monica Mountains, where the organization is based \u2014 offer a plantable space for larger native species, like oaks.<\/p>\n

Concrete jungle<\/h2>\n

The areas of LA most needing reforestation, however, are not only the lowest in life expectancy, but also the least plantable. In a city where\u00a0over half<\/a>\u00a0the surfaces are dark concrete or asphalt, which absorbs up to 90% of solar radiation, this inequality is deadly. While the study found that life expectancy in financially and verdantly green Beverly Hills is as high as 90, the median in south LA communities less than 15 miles away is 77.<\/p>\n

Many of these communities \u201csuffer shade inequity presented by low tree canopy coverage due to the fact that they\u2019re flanked by freeways and sit in a basin,\u201d explained Garcia. \u201cWhere it\u2019s heavily polluted, it\u2019s even harder to plant around a major roadway or warehouse.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFurthermore,\u201d she added, researchers looking to raise life expectancy through urban greening sometimes overlook the fact that \u201cmountains are the lungs of our city. Reforestation efforts must extend to burn areas around LA.\u201d<\/p>\n

Addressing air quality issues<\/h2>\n

In light of ever-worsening wildfire seasons, this focus is especially pertinent. The Air Quality Life Index, an annual report from the University of Chicago,\u00a0found last June<\/a>\u00a0that particulate air pollution \u2014 including wildfire smoke, which accounts for\u00a0up to half<\/a>\u00a0of all fine-particle pollution in the Western U.S. \u2014 removes over two years from the global average life expectancy (more than cigarettes, alcohol, or terrorism).<\/p>\n

That same report found that 29 of the 30 counties with the worst particulate pollution in 2020 were in California, including LA.<\/p>\n

To counter this, TreePeople obtained a\u00a0grant<\/a>\u00a0through CalFIRE in 2020 to plant and maintain 1,000 trees in the southern city of Lynwood (next to\u00a0Watts<\/a>, where the organization also planted 700 trees in 2021). The funding allowed volunteers to utilize Light Detection and Ranging technology, scanning the city with low-flying aircraft to determine ideal tree topography.<\/p>\n

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TreePeople volunteers and staff planting one of the 1,000 trees they brought to Lynwood, Los Angeles County in 2021.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Alongside this technology, feedback from Lynwood community allowed volunteers to focus planting in high-need areas, not only creating a barrier against pollution near freeways, but also creating shaded paths to schools and city facilities. The response to this was so positive that, even as the maintenance phase for this project continues, TreePeople is currently seeking grants to fund more trees in Lynwood.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe City Council approached us asking how we can work together again, and we gave 250 fruit trees to the city. We even inspired community members to advocate for the transformation of an empty lot and dumping ground into a community garden,\u201d said Garcia. \u201cOur presence in the communities we help doesn\u2019t end when we\u2019re done planting, as we water and maintain each tree for three to five years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Environmental messaging<\/h2>\n

Alongside further planting efforts \u2014 in July 2023, TreePeople began distributing 2,000 shade trees and planting 4,000 more trees in under-greened areas with the\u00a0South LA Eco-Lab<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 addressing mixed environmental messages has also been key to enriching the lives of LA County residents.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is often overlooked by policymakers,\u201d said Garcia. \u201cIf you plant a tree in someone\u2019s yard, they have to care for it once a week, and yet one of the most common messages they hear is not to water their yard in the summer or during a drought,\u201d said Garcia. \u201cThey\u2019re not being asked to not water trees, just to not water lawns. We\u2019ve partnered with the Metropolitan Water District to bridge this communication gap.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone wants a green neighborhood, they want access to unpolluted air and they want the cooling benefits of shade,\u201d she added. \u201cThe data shows that the challenges are systemic, they\u2019re being faced in communities that have been historically redlined. Overcoming these challenges is deeper-rooted than planting a tree; that\u2019s where it starts.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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