Are trees a luxury?
Allentown’s path toward tree equity
By Zoe Lachter
A tornado warning sounds across Allentown. The wind howls against an old oak tree, towering and precarious. With the next gust, a branch breaks free with a crack. The branch collides with a powerline; everything goes dark.
In the days after this August 9 storm, crews spent hours repairing damage to electrical wires and sidewalks from fallen trees and branches. Now, the summer sun beats down. That same oak stands, recovered from the storm. Below its branches, heavy with leaves, children enjoy the shadow it casts on their walk to school. A car is parked in the tree’s shade to keep the seats from heating in the sun. A woman rests against the trunk of the tree, setting down her groceries for a minute, before continuing her trek home.
Allentonians have a love-hate relationship with trees. They cost time and money to plant and maintain. And yet we need them. We love them. And in many ways, our trees love us back. Trees are valuable to the health of city-dwellers–they lower the temperature and reduce the very real danger of heat stroke. Trees also improve the respiratory health of residents by producing oxygen and cleaning the air.
This year, during the week of July 7, we faced record heat in the high 90’s every day. The extreme weather we’ve been experiencing, worsened by climate change, makes tree maintenance more challenging, but it also makes us need trees more than ever. In some sense, trees are our neighbors. We fight with them about access to parking spaces and neighborhood upkeep, but we care for them too. In the long term, no matter how fraught the relationship may get, we need them just as much as they need us. Ultimately, no matter the hassle, trees are absolutely vital to the health of a city.
But not everyone gets to reap the benefits that our trees provide for us. Just a few miles east reveals a dwindling amount of tree cover. A block along 27th Street is lined with decades-old maple and oak trees, veiled in precious shade. Meanwhile, blocks along Fourth Street have significantly fewer trees for shade and are left to bake in the summer sun. Heat seems to radiate off the street.
What is tree equity?
Tree equity refers to the even distribution of trees across an area, providing shade and lower temperatures. The south side and east side of Allentown face the most severe lack of tree equity. According to the American Forests Tree Equity Score, which scores an area’s tree cover on a scale of 1 ( least tree cover) to 100 ( sufficient tree cover), areas in south side have scores as low as 46, with canopy cover at 14%. In this particular area, the temperature disparity is +11.2 degrees Fahrenheit from areas on the west side, which have tree equity scores as high as 100. There is a direct correlation between higher tree cover and lower temperatures and our tree cover is not evenly distributed. While Allentown as a whole has a composite score of 76, this greenery is not shared equitably across the city.
When an area lacks the shade of mature trees, temperatures can become dangerously high, resulting in what is known as a heat island. Such areas are also predominantly populated by historically disadvantaged communities, a striking pattern in neighborhoods with low tree-equity scores across the nation. For example, one tree equity census block group on Allentown’s east side by Third Street has a score of 47. In this area, 59% of the population lives in poverty, 87% are people of color, and temperatures can be 10 degrees warmer than average. Another census block along 26th and 27th Street has a score of 99. Here, only 24% of the population faces poverty and 7% are people of color. The summer temperatures here are often more than a degree cooler than average.
“In predominantly white areas, trees cover one-third of the surface. In communities of color, barely one-fifth,” explains Ian Leahy, the vice president of urban forestry at American Forests in an article for the New York Times. “Rich Americans enjoy almost 50 percent more greenery in their environment compared with lower-income communities.”
Why is it a problem?
These heat islands put everyone who lives within them at a disproportionate risk of heat stroke. In fact, excessive heat can be just as deadly as other natural disasters such as hurricanes and flooding. But even more concerning is the risk to people who are most likely to be out walking on the heated streets. Because heat islands tend to exist in denser, lower-income areas, many people don’t have consistent access to an air-conditioned car on hot days. Such residents tend to be the elderly population who no longer drive and children who walk to school daily. These most vulnerable walkers find themselves at increased risk from the danger of heat stroke, walking in the sun or waiting at hot bus stops without shade.
The importance of trees doesn’t stop there. Studies show that a lack of tree density has been linked to higher blood pressure and cardiac issues. Living in areas with low tree equity can also have negative effects on mental health, increases stress levels, and discourages an active lifestyle.
Trees are also financially beneficial. The shade of neighborhood trees decreases the need for air conditioning. “If a tree is placed in an area that can provide some shade to the building or the home that’s nearby,” explains Veronika Vostinak, Allentown’s newly appointed Sustainability Coordinator. “It can actually lower the energy costs for air conditioning in the building. So, especially in buildings that may have less efficient air conditioning, like window units, that can be really, really impactful on their utility bill.”
How did we get to this point?
Trees indicate not just current issues of tree shade in an area, but also previous patterns such as red-lining, gerrymandering, varying property taxes, and racial segregation. The trees of an area are often the markers left behind by that place’s financial and political history. Tree equity traces a multigenerational history of the neglect of underserved neighborhoods.
Heat islands in Allentown have been studied by Dr. Karen Beck Pooley, a professor at Lehigh University. Her research finds that the areas that become heat islands tend to be directly correlated with an area’s general racial and socioeconomic history. Although Allentown has no record of a red-lining map, it maintains significant residential segregation. And while denser areas in Allentown, predominantly populated by people of color, grapple with the effects of limited tree canopy, the west side benefits from the shade of towering trees lining streets and sidewalks; trees that have been there for ages. “Historically,” Pooley explains, “people in these neighborhoods had the most social political capital.” The wealthier population of the suburban west side was most vocal in local government. Mayors were pressured to invest more into these neighborhoods in order to retain that population – and the property taxes they brought in – by keeping them satisfied with their neighborhood greenspace. Meanwhile, the east side’s need for urban green space development could be ignored with limited pushback.
Additionally, not only did the west end have the benefit of public investment, but also private investment in private property and neighborhood beautification by local homeowners. Having a lush urban forest and well-maintained greenspace was a privilege of those with socioeconomic influence.
“My experience of trees in the city is that we typically, or historically, have planted street trees in neighborhoods that ask for it, as opposed to neighborhoods that really need it but don’t know how to ask,” says Mayor Matt Tuerk. “And when you go visit Second Street, it’s significantly hotter, it doesn’t have that tree cover that you expect to find on 22nd Street.”
The trees of our city remind us that we are a community within a centuries-long chain of communities who have existed as the stewards of Allentown. This issue is caused by generations before us and benefits from present-day solutions will be reaped by generations after, making this a pivotal moment in the city’s focus on tree equity. “We have a responsibility in the city to create a safe and clean and healthy environment that promotes our residents well-being,” says Tuerk. “It just is so essential to what we do, and it needs to not just benefit higher income residents or residents who are living in more affluent areas. It has to benefit all of our residents. And trees do that because they clean the air for everybody.”
What’s being done about it?
Allentown is far from the only place working to improve tree equity in predominantly low-income neighborhoods. In Louisville, Kentucky, there is a major tree planting initiative, with an emphasis that includes on planting mature trees. The Green Heart Project is a community-based trial led by the University of Louisville that examines the effects of living in greener areas. In order to achieve this goal, researchers are studying two groups of residents; one group in areas where trees were planted, and another group where planting didn’t take place. The project seeks to encourage tree growth within the studied area in order to demonstrate its importance and encourage tree planting more widely.
“Rewilding current cities, increasing greenspace, enhancing tree canopy, and similar initiatives may be costly but there also may be an array of benefits,” explains Dr. Joy Hart of the Green Heart Project, “ranging from better health and decreased health care costs to improved relationships with neighbors and life satisfaction.”
As The Green Heart project plants new trees, researchers will also track the health of residents who sign up to participate. Green Heart hopes to encourage a green-print – which means that cities are developed, they focus more of their planning efforts on the protection of the existing urban forest.
Just a few miles east of Allentown, in Bethlehem’s Indian Hill neighborhood, Community Action Development Bethlehem is working on a tree-planting initiative with a $14,000 grant to provide mini-grants to low-to-moderate income property owners for tree removal, replacement, and sidewalk maintenance. They also designated $8,000 dollars to put new trees into empty tree wells to support safe walking routes to school.
The pilot program, if successful, could be implemented more broadly and invested in further. This initiative not only supports property owners’ investment in tree maintenance, but also provides property owners with some agency and control over their neighborhood’s tree growth. Residents can choose the species of trees and are given a one-year warranty for the first year of sustaining new trees.
Here in Allentown, the Shade Tree Commission works to ensure that developers replace trees removed for construction, to increase Allentown’s overall tree canopy, and to keep an inventory of Allentown’s trees. The inventory helps the city maintain and increase the number of trees, as well as track the size, age, health, placement, and species of the trees. So, if a tree needs to be added or replaced, the city can assess which type of tree would be best in that area based on the surrounding trees’ species and the needs of the neighborhood. The inventory is updated every ten years, and the Commission will conduct a new inventory next year. The last inventory counted about 10,000 trees.
With next year’s inventory renewal comes their comprehensive management plan. For this pursuit, Allentown has received a nearly $1 million dollar grant from the US Department of Agriculture and US Forest Service for tree plantings as well as removals and replacements of old trees. The areas where trees are planted will be based on the areas most in need, measured by the American Forests Tree Equity Score. “We should be starting the tree inventory later this year, and we will have the whole project completed, including all the tree plantings, in 2028 so it’s about a three to four year process for the whole project,” reports Vostinak.
“We’re hoping that, with the grants and with other awareness projects, and our involvement in making sure that developers are doing their job [replacing trees], you know, we slowly start to chip away at some of those deficits,” says Christian Brown, chair of the Shade Tree Commission. “So I think we’re finally, maybe, turning the curve to where we’re actually planting more trees than we’re losing. So, I think that’s a good sign.”
A pressing concern for the Shade Tree Commission is balancing the need for new tree growth with downtown’s need for new housing construction. Surprisingly, the two initiatives are not so deeply in conflict with one another. New development is an area the Shade Tree Commission holds some jurisdiction over. So when construction occurs, it creates the opportunity to enforce tree-planting requirements and replace old trees. In this sense, tree planting is a natural partner of Allentown development.
“We need novel approaches to lowering the costs. And so one of them is ensuring there’s support for maintenance of the trees. A concern that is often raised related to trees is that there’s a future cost associated with sidewalk heaving right?” explains Tuerk. “What I’d like to do is explore something with city council that would create amnesty on sidewalk repair. So that if you plant a tree through this program, we could pass an ordinance that would exempt a property owner from responsibility for tree-related sidewalk damage, and then the city would pick up the cost for that if subjective repairs are needed associated with planting the tree. So that’s something that we can take off of the plate of concerns for a resident.”
Tree equity is an investment in Allentown’s long term health. Furthermore, tree equity is an investment in rectifying the discrimination of historical planting patterns. “Trees know no political boundaries,” says Brown, “they benefit everybody.”
