By Monica Thornton, Executive Director of The Nature Conservancy in Georgia
Atlanta is known the world over as the “City in the Forest” thanks to our iconic tree canopy which covers nearly 50% of the city, higher than any other city in the country that have conducted Urban Tree Canopy (UTC) assessments. Not only do these trees provide obvious benefits like shade and aesthetic beauty, but they also help mitigate increasingly blistering heat across the city, keep our soil and air clean, provide habitat for critical species, and mitigate stormwater runoff.
More than 40,000 acres of Atlanta is covered by trees, with just over 6 million trees distributed within city limits. That did not happen by accident, with policies such as Atlanta’s Tree Ordinance designed to make sure we never cut too deep into our tree stock. However, despite some minimal updates in 2022, that ordinance has not been significantly changed in more than 15 years despite the combined effects of increased development and climate change impacting Atlanta.
The Nature Conservancy in Georgia has worked to protect hundreds of thousands of acres of forest throughout the state, from the Chattahoochee Fall Line around Columbus to the Dugdown Corridor just a few dozen miles north of Atlanta. We have seen the positive outcomes that having a dedicated, experienced forester has on these landscapes, from healthier trees to thriving species.
It is with that experience that we look to Atlanta and see that what we need is a comprehensive plan to protect and expand our tree canopy. Right now, decisions about which trees will stay and which will be cut down are made on a tree-by-tree basis with little regard for the forest as a whole. This is of particular concern as more than three-fourths of our tree canopy exists on privately-owned, single-family, residential land. For comparison, less than 5% of our tree canopy comes from our public parks.
The problem isn’t as simple as replacing old trees with new ones, either. As a tree grows more venerable, they become increasingly efficient at capturing and storing carbon emissions that would otherwise contribute to worse air quality in the city. Any significant decrease in carbon storage would in turn worsen health outcomes for residents, especially children and seniors living in lower-income communities which are already covered by a smaller share of our tree canopy.
We have seen firsthand how important it is to manage ecosystems at scale and that is exactly what Atlanta’s forest is – a living, breathing organism that should and must be treated as a whole. Our canopy doesn’t exist by accident and it will only continue to thrive if we’re intentional with comprehensively protecting it. In forests across Georgia, it can take decades for restoration work to fully come to fruition. Even now, many of our forests are still dealing with the consequences of unsustainable logging practices of the 1800s.
Atlanta is growing quickly while our city boundaries remain the same. Over the next 10, 20, and 30 years, we’re going to have to continue building new homes, schools, offices, and transit to support a population which will only become more densely packed. As we do, we should make sure that our status as a “City in the Forest” is never put at risk. If we lose it, we can never get it back.
