Press Release Archive
Austin Energy to fund 3,000 tree plantings
Austin Energy is partnering with TreeFolks
and the City of Austin’s NeighborWoods program to plant
3,000 trees this fiscal year along public right of ways to
increase shading in neighborhoods and to reduce energy bills
while beautifying the community.
The effort is part of the City of Austin’s
Urban Heat Island Mitigation initiative, designed to reduce
the heat in urban areas caused by concrete, buildings, and
loss of tree cover. The tree plantings along right of ways
are aimed at shading streets and reducing the heat absorbed
by the dark pavement. It is estimated that the “urban
heat island effect” causes urbanized areas to be 3 to
9 degrees hotter than surrounding rural areas, leading to
increased energy use and therefore additional generation needs.
The NeighborWoods program provides trees
to residents for free in neighborhoods determined through
aerial photographs and visual inspections to need more trees.
Residents mail in a reply card left at their door agreeing
to plant the trees in designated locations identified by the
program that provide optimum shading while also away from
utility lines. Residents also agree to water the trees for
two years to help them get established. The program has distributed
more than 20,000 trees since 1994. Trees planted through the
program have had an overall survival rate of about 80%.
TreeFolks, a non-profit organization dedicated
to public tree plantings, is contracting with Austin Energy
to coordinate six delivery cycles of 500 trees each cycle
between November and March. The organization also will provide
all administrative duties such as identifying locations to
plant the trees, processing reply cards and distributing tree-planting
literature to residents.
Trees distributed through this program are
adaptive to our area and include oaks, pecans, elms and Chinese
pistache. Research shows that neighborhoods shaded with trees
stay 3 to 6 degrees cooler than neighborhoods without trees.
For more information, contact Ed
Clark, Public Information.
Phone: (512) 322-6514
Pager: (512) 802-2000 |
