The Many Benefits of Trees Accumulate Over Time
There is a long list of benefits to planting native trees in your yard. You may be interested in adding shade, improving curb appeal and attracting birds to your yard, but the environmental benefits are worth noting too. Key benefits include:
Carbon storage: When you plant a brand-new tree on your property, it will be small, and its individual impact will not be that large. Throughout the year, a new northern red oak will store about 0.44 kilograms of carbon, which is equivalent to the emissions of an average gas-powered vehicle driving 6.5 kilometres. While that isn’t much, each year the tree grows, the benefits do too. Over the next 20 years, that same northern red oak will offset emissions equivalent to driving 784 kilometres, approximately a round-trip drive from Mississauga to Ottawa.
Stormwater management: Trees are very thirsty. Even a newly planted northern red oak can soak up the equivalent of eight bathtubs full of water throughout the year. Over 20 years, that same tree will absorb enough stormwater to fill approximately 325 bathtubs.
It Takes a Forest
One tree can’t do all the work on its own. It’s through the combined efforts of all the trees planted throughout our watershed, and beyond, that we will see multiple benefits. This year CVC’s Your Green Yard program has planted almost 100 trees, with more being planted this fall. Add that to the 3,000 trees and shrubs planted in the first 15 years of this program, and we start to see significant changes in our urban areas.
The trees planted during the program’s early years continue to grow and provide more benefits. This year, each of those trees will offset emissions equivalent to driving 40 kilometers and fill 21 bathtubs with the stormwater they absorbed.
To provide these benefits, you can do some simple things to help it thrive. Read our Caring for Your Tree as it Ages article for some tips.
Accumulating Benefits
If you have a tree on your property and want to learn more about how it benefits our watershed, use the iTree tool.