From the Desk of Angie Jeffords: Reflections on Trees & People

From From the Desk of Angie Jeffords - November 21, 2022

Dear Friends of the PLAY Boulder Foundation,

Eth-no-bo-tany: the scientific study of the relationship between humans and plants.

I heard this term recently and now I can’t seem to get it out of my mind!

I’ve been looking around and notice my own relationship with plants. Each morning I like to start my day sitting in my backyard under a tree in my backyard (I choose different trees in each season), enjoying a cup of coffee – made, as it turns out, from a plant. My favorite cotton sweatshirt is also made from plants. This is my deep breath moment before I start each day, and every aspect of it calms me and ties me to the natural world.

The Tree Trust is one of my favorite programs at PLAY Boulder, because it is an incredible example of ethnobotany at its best. We are building an urban tree canopy. This leafy green light is the light of health, of physical cool or mental breath. And the creation of it is a science project: how will we connect the canopy across our city? Lastly, it will take all the humans – our community to sustain and nurture it, through watering and care. It is, literally, the scientific study of the relationship between humans and plants.

The science tells us that an urban canopy is one of the best tools to combat rising temperatures. On one of the hottest days of July, a study was conducted by NOAA and our partners within the Cool Boulder Initiative to measure and map how hot temperatures got in various parts of town. The results show that Boulder experiences some of the most extensive heat extremes of any community across the country participating in the study. At one point in the day, there was a 17-degree difference between the coolest area of Boulder and the warmest area.

That study confirmed the wisdom of an urban canopy, something that the city of Boulder put into its strategic plan in 2018. The vision is to have a connected canopy of trees throughout the city to combat heat differentials and to provide green spaces to cool everything off. If you looked at Boulder from the air, you would see that the canopy is robust in the older neighborhoods, closer to the mountains, but thins out as we look east and look at less affluent neighborhoods.

The city has it handled in parks and on spaces they own, but they reached out to us to help connect trees through the private spaces. What we learned from that study was where it gets to be the hottest. Generally, and unsurprisingly, many of those areas were rental and lower-income neighborhoods.

Guided by this heat mapping tool, we are planning to focus on those vulnerable areas first, to “green” them up, to work with homeowners and neighborhoods to get more trees planted. We will help care for trees that are in danger. We will provide resources and support to everyone to keep trees thriving.

Recent research has proven that our physical and mental health is improved by exposure to cool green spaces. They boost our immune systems and generate increased serotonin and decreased stress so we can better fight off disease. With rising temperatures, we need your help.

Please consider making a gift this season to support PLAY Boulder’s Urban Canopy. Please schedule a gift today for Colorado Gives Day next month.

Sincerely,
Angie Jeffords

P.S. Want to geek out about trees? Nothing would make me happier than to tell you more about the science. Call me to chat!