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Forget the Grass, Trees Need Your Help

2022-08-02T09:15:00+00:00

A perfectly green lawn, a long-time indicator of a functioning household and a long-time indicator of wasted resources. The Western fascination with grass lawns goes way back, originating in the gardens of the 18th century English and French upper-class. Drawing inspiration from launds – grassy clearings among trees - in the surrounding European forests, the wealthy sought to recreate the experience in their expansive gardens, leading to what we now recognize as lawns. Lawns eventually made their way to the Americas in the 19th century through our own historical elites – like Thomas Jefferson, an avid horticulturalist. Although home gardens in the US remained dedicated to consumable vegetation for several decades, by the mid-19th century, focus shifted to the ornamental. After the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876, where the USDA presented a how-to exhibit on growing your own grass lawn, interest steadily grew throughout the next 100 years. After several innovations made in lawncare in the early 1900s, grass lawns became a standard in the booming American suburbs. Now, another 100 years later, lawns are still as commonplace as ever, but do we have the means to keep this tradition alive?

In short, yes, we do. Despite the megadrought and surging heatwaves, our lawns can survive, because they’re well-propagated for hardship. Of all the plants in our garden, grass is sure to be the one that needs the least amount of water to survive. Although it might brown, it’s still alive and the green will return next year. This browning is part of grass’s seasonal cycle. Like other perennials, grass enters a period of dormancy once it undergoes the stresses of their disfavored seasons. This stage in its annual cycle can be delayed with extensive watering, but our limited resources would be best spent on plants in the garden that need it more.

Trees need our help most. Arguably the most valuable plants in our gardens because of the benefits they provide for our homes and communities, trees should be our top watering priority. While grasses only need half an inch (~1 quart) of water every 2-4 weeks to survive the season, trees require 5-50 gallons of water a week (or more, if the tree is especially large). As sturdy as they appear to be, trees are far more delicate than grass and they need our help to survive the ongoing megadrought, which is predicted to end in 2030 at the earliest. Paired with the fact that extended drought events are expected to become more severe and more common, our focus-shift away from grass and towards trees will likely and necessarily be permanent.

Salt Lake City’s canopy has been steadily receding since the early 2000s, largely due to trees being neglected within recurring periods of drought. Without adequate water, trees either die off or they become too brittle to withstand high winds and dense snow fall, leading to broken branches or treefall. In addition to causing damage to anything beneath them when this happens, we lose the irreplaceable benefits old-growth trees provide. Benefits like cleaner air and shade – things we’ll be immeasurably thankful for in the harsh Summers ahead, things grass can’t provide. Grass doesn’t do much for us and it doesn’t need our help, so let’s concentrate on the plants that do, trees.

Growing Trees to Shrink Salt Lake City’s Heat Islands

2023-07-13T09:15:00+00:00

In the fiery heat of Summer, shade-providing trees are a sought-after resource. They provide us with relief from the heat and they lower overall temperatures in the immediate area. While concrete, roads, and metal absorb and re-emit heat, trees provide substantial relief from the heat by both providing shade and cooling through evapotranspiration. A healthy urban forest is one of our greatest tools in reducing the heat island effect generated by our concrete jungle.

Urban heat islands are caused by a lack of cooling abiotic factors in an environment in addition to abundant human activity. Although minimally perceptible on a small scale, the heat generated by individuals driving, using machinery, or even just jogging builds up, leading to a significant heat increase in the local area. In densely populated urban areas, the heat generated by just living our day-to-day lives with the heat trapped by urban structures accumulates, creating a sweltering heat zone.

Cities overall are much hotter than surrounding rural areas, because of comparably higher levels of human activity and lower square-footage of greenspace. Within cities too, there are areas that have far fewer trees, which leads to even higher temperatures than the rest of the city. This phenomenon is immediately noticeable in Salt Lake City, where shaded areas - like Sugar House or Capitol Hill - feel notably cooler than areas with fewer trees – like Rose Park or Poplar Grove. Although the difference in temperature in these areas might only be a couple degrees, this seemingly small increase in temperature is drastic, especially when the daily temps are reaching the triple digits. With only a 2° increase, energy demands can increase up to 9%, leading to higher energy costs and more pollution.

By growing the urban forest and minimizing these barren, extreme heat zones, we all benefit. We all benefit from lowering temperatures within the cityscape, reducing energy use, and creating welcoming spaces for us all to enjoy year-round. In addition to creating an overall more inviting city for us all to enjoy, we can help protect our neighbors from heat-related illness, keep our waterways clean, and reduce pollution – all by planting more trees. With Salt Lake City’s increased efforts to plant more trees on the West Side and TreeUtah’s partnerships with community organizations in areas in need of more trees, the city’s urban forest will continue to grow and, hopefully, help our community thrive equitably.

Hotter Temperatures: What that Means and How to Prepare

2022-07-27T22:03:46+00:00

Heat is a silent predator – lurking in the periphery until the timing is right and then it pounces on your delicate herb garden, leaving it wilting under the scorching sun with little hope. For the last few years, Salt Lake City summers have been characterized by excessive heat. Each year, the summer season breaks records. This heat is a continuing extreme weather event linked to climate change and it has touched everything.

Everything from ourselves, wildlife, plants, and abiotic factors are experiencing the effects of this excess heat. In Utah’s semi-arid climate, we have very little moisture to spare, so every drop is critical. If heat levels increase in the air, the moisture in the soil can be affected too and dry out, which leads to less ground water for our wild landscapes, our gardens, the wildlife, and us. What can we do to prepare and protect both ourselves and our habitat from a predator as seasoned and pervasive as the boiling summer heat?

Planting for Drought

For a lush garden in the midst of drought and surging heat, choose plants that flourish in dryer climates. We have done some of the research for you and we have a list of trees that do well in regions prone to drought. Making the choice to plant more drought-tolerant species could get you a three-for-one kind of deal. One, once a drought-tolerant shade tree reaches maturity, the surrounding area will be shaded, which leads to less money spent on AC in the Summer. Two, adding various types of drought-tolerant species can help diversify and allow resiliency to the ecosystem in the area. Three, adding native trees to the urban forest can limit the threat of invasive species from taking over.

Conserving Water

A drought-resistant garden, of course, will help reduce water use. While watering the garden, it’s also important to ensure water is being used to maximum effect by watering early in the morning or at night to prevent significant evaporative water loss and by refraining from watering when it’s too windy. Gardeners should also be mindful of prioritizing the plants that need water most: trees, shrubs, perennials, annuals, and then grass. Additionally, taking shorter showers, turning off the faucet while brushing teeth, running swamp coolers on the lowest setting, and other household water-saving efforts can go a long way in reducing the community’s overall water use. By conserving water, we can secure a reliable water supply for future generations and support the wildlife that makes Utah a beautiful, unique place to live, ensuring our community will be able to safely enjoy our remarkable habitat along the Wasatch wildland-urban interface for decades to come.

Personal Preparation for Extreme Heat

With increasing occurrence of wildfires in the region and indefinitely hotter, drier Summers, it’s a good idea to take measures now to do what you can to beat the heat and to have an action plan in place if you are in an area that is at wildfire risk. Keeping your house cool using tools beyond AC will help you find relief from the heat without overburdening the electrical grid or your wallet. These tools include adequate drapery or shades, weather-stripped doors and windows, and adequate insulation. It’s also important to ensure you are staying hydrated and have supplies ready to go in case of emergency, whether it’s due to wildfire or heat-caused power outages. The American Red Cross and the U.S. emergency preparedness website both have excellent advice and resources that can help us plan for the hot Summers ahead.

At this point, we know Summers will keep getting hotter and it’s important for us all to take the steps we can to prepare. As individuals and as a community, we can adapt and beat the heat.