Benefits of Gardening

Short Description
Americans face a lot of stress factors including constant bombardment with information about environmental issues, economic concerns, health worries, and community strife. Gardening is a tool to abate life’s stress, enhance the environment, develop individuals, and build communities.

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Content
Urban and community forests can strongly influence the physical/biological environment and mitigate many impacts of urban development by moderating climate, conserving energy, using carbon dioxide, improving air quality, controlling rainfall runoff and flooding, lowering noise levels, harboring wildlife, and enhancing the attractiveness of cities.
Urban forests play a key role in abating the emerging energy crisis. On a community-wide basis, the value of the urban forest in heating and cooling effects quickly adds up to the millions of dollars in energy savings. Some figures to illustrate this point include the following:
• Trees contribute to energy conservation because they help reduce the cost of heating and cooling buildings. Summertime air temperatures in cities can be as much as 100 F warmer than in surrounding rural areas due to the replacement of soil and vegetation with concrete, asphalt, and metal.
• Computer simulations suggest that a single 25 foot tree can reduce the heating and cooling costs of a typical residence by 8 to 10 percent.
• In another study, windbreaks can reduce a typical home’s heating demand by 5 to 15 percent.
• In a Sacramento County case study, the value of the urban forest in its annual cooling effects was calculated at approximately 157 GWh ($18.5 million) per year.
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