The U.S. Neighborhoods With the Greatest Tree Inequity, Mapped
The poorest communities have 41% less tree cover than the wealthiest ones, a new mapping project finds.
Tree-lined streets aren’t just idyllic. They’re also important to combating urban heat.
Photographer: GHI/Education Images/Universal Images Group
Shade from trees can make a dramatic difference in combating urban heat, especially amid blistering heat waves like the one gripping the western U.S. this week. A new analysis quantifies just now unequal tree cover is in the U.S.: Neighborhoods with a majority of people of color have, on average, 33% less tree canopy than majority-white communities, according to data from the Tree Equity Score map, a project of the conservation nonprofit American Forests. The poorest neighborhoods, where 90% of residents live in poverty, have 41% less coverage than the wealthiest ones.
The new findings add to mounting research on the unequal distribution of trees. As Jad Daley, president and CEO of American Forests, told CityLab last August, any map of tree cover in a U.S. city likely reflects its racial and socioeconomic divide.