Many different approaches can help illuminate how people feel about trees, their neighborhood and the relationship between the two. Some are best suited for big communities with large, diverse populations. Others are built around direct interaction with residents and stakeholders.
Individual or small group approaches work better at the neighborhood level. They offer residents a comfortable, accessible way to enter and shape the conversation. Whether knocking on someone’s door or inviting them to a group meeting, you’ll always get a more positive response if they know a trusted and credible neighborhood leader stands with you.
Talking Points
Begin the conversation by asking what people care about? Hear them out, affirm their views and offer other things they might want to think about. Click the topics below for suggestions.
Health
Trees have a lot to do with good health. They trap pollutants, give off the oxygen we breathe, and even reduce stress. In communities like ours, we don’t have enough trees to make a difference.
Talking points
- Tell a story about a child you know with asthma, if possible. Focus on missed school days, doctor and medicine costs. Many school districts, county and city health departments monitor these data.
Asthma is a problem in our neighborhood because black children are 2 ½ times more likely than white kids to have serious recurring asthma attacks. Why? One reason is pollution. And one way to reduce pollution is to plant more trees. In dense cities like Boston, the rates of severe asthma among black children are even higher – 4 ½ times the rate for whites. In New York, scientists confirmed that children who lived in neighborhoods with fewer trees suffered more frequently from asthma.
Climate Change
We know heat can kill. In past years, some 12,000 people died during prolonged periods of extreme heat. And we know trees can help.
Talking Points:
- Ask listeners if the routes they take walking to school, church or shopping are shaded and cool.
- The number of heat deaths in some cities matches and may soon exceed the number of homicides. And that’s not just because homicide numbers are shrinking. Heat-related deaths in 2023 jumped more than 50 percent from the record set in 2022.
- Many cities will experience almost twice as many extremely hot days as they do now. Planting trees can cool our streets and make walking pleasant again.
Longevity
Just a few years ago, Harvard scientists discovered that you’ll live longer if your home is near trees and green space. Those who lived within a tenth of a mile from green space lived 12 percent longer than those who did not. Now we have a chance to fix this. We need to plan and work together if we want Tree Equity and the benefits of living near trees.
Life expectancy increases 12 percent if you live near trees.
Talking Points:
- We’re on the wrong side of that divide. When I look out my window, I don’t see many trees, and I suspect that many of you don’t as well.
- We know what’s wrong with this picture. But why did it happen? There are many reasons, but perhaps the most important is long-standing discrimination in housing and lack of investment in the places where working people can afford to live.
Education
Hardscaped schoolyards present health risks in a warming world. That’s why parents and educators in California started a campaign to bring nature back to playgrounds.
Click here for an infographic that illustrates the multiple benefits of green schoolyards and trees.
Talking Points:
- Decades of research have confirmed that students of all types learn more and perform better when they can play on green spaces rather than on asphalt or bare dirt.
- Access to green spaces outside schools, especially with trees, can help relieve stress, restore attention and improve student performance.
Water
What goes into the water supply goes into our bodies – and our kids.
Talking Point:
- In every community, the water that runs off from yards and streets can carry pollution into local creeks, streams and lakes. From there, even after treatment, that’s the water that comes out of our taps. Everybody needs clean water, and one way to get it is to plant trees where they can absorb rainfall, remove pollutants and prevent runoff.