Trees — a surprising answer to surging stormwater.
A fewmonths back, I was interviewing Kay Sykora, Roxborough resident and former executive director of the Manayunk Development Corp. and founder of the MDC’s Destination Schuylkill River project. We were talking about Roxborough Green, an effort in which she has been actively engaged, a community-led project to plant trees and gardens in Roxborough neighborhoods, especially in the front yards of neighbors needing advice and volunteer labor.
And she noted something interesting, that Roxborough residents had long been hesitant to plant trees — their leaves fall in the autumn and their flowers drop in the spring, causing us to have to rake and bag them, and branches can fall and hit things.
So Roxborough is, surprisingly, not quite as green as Manayunk below us or Chestnut Hill above us.
But I’ve been meditating on another long-standing Roxborough issue, the scourge of stormwater pouring down our streets, especially in neighborhoods like Upper Roxborough where there are precious few storm drains — water flows down the edges of these streets like streams, sometimes, especially during the increasingly frequent summer thunderstorms, like whitewater. As the drama of the proposed development of the 7519 Ridge Ave. site plays out — too much density on too small a plot of land (sound familiar?) — stormwater is one of the concerns highlighted by neighbors and residents opposed to this site’s overdevelopment.
Are you, like so many in Roxborough, concerned about stormwater? If you are, here is one easy solution: Plant trees. Seriously. Trees mitigate the scourge of stormwater in several important, even surprising, ways. A mature tree might sport as many as 200,000 leaves, each acting like a tiny umbrella. A large tree not only shades a large amount of land, but keeps stormwater off that land, preventing the stormwater from hitting the ground and racing across our streets. It can take drops of water many hours to trickle down and through those 200,000 leaves, effectively parceling out the rain over a longer period of time.
And because of that, rain hits the ground with much less velocity, causing far less erosion.
Then there are the roots. A good rule of thumb for trees is to look at the size of the tree above the ground and assume that the amount of roots below the ground is roughly equiva- lent. So a mature tree hasmiles and miles of roots underground in an extensively dense network, those roots busily sopping up water like millions of sponges, holding onto the soil against the forces of erosion.
As thunderstorms race across this region this week, think about large trees protecting Roxborough’s soil from stormwater’s worst.
But trees do more than that. Many studies show that mature trees in a well-landscaped yard can increase the resale value of a home, some studies saying between $1,000 and $10,000 but others noting the increase is more, from 7 to 19 percent. If the latter number is correct, a $200,000 house might sell for $238,000 if it has several large trees and a well-landscaped property.
Even better, the American Power Association estimates that a smart arrangement of the right trees can reduce a home’s cooling bill by as much as 50 percent annually. In fact, areas without shade trees might be as much as 12 degrees warmer than nearby areas. And trees planted on the northern and northwestern sides of a home create a wall against cold winter winds that might cut heating costs by as much as 30 percent annually.
So trees protect you against the worst of stormwater, cool your house in the summer (saving youmoney), keep your house warmer in the winter (saving you more money) and increase your property’s resale value (giving you even more money).
Might this be worth a couple of days of autumn raking?
To plant trees on your property, there are several things you might do. One is to reach out to Roxborough Green via its website, roxboroughpa.com/ for-residents/roxborough-green. They’ll come for a consultation and help you plant.
Another is to come to the Schuylkill Center this Saturday for our summer native plant sale, where many kinds of trees will also be for sale — they are small saplings, of course, but given time and TLC, they will add ecological and financial value to your property.
“He who plants a tree,” wrote poet Lucy Larcom in the 1800s, “plants a hope.” Here’s hoping you’ll help Roxborough Green re-green Roxborough, helping the community in many ways, one of which is to combat the scourge of stormwater that plagues us.
Treesmitigate the scourge of stormwater in several important, even surprising, ways. Amature tree might sport as many as 200,000 leaves, each acting like a tiny umbrella.