This week on “The Climate Divide,” why the D.C. region’s tree canopy is at a turning point
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In today’s episode of “The Climate Divide,” we focus on the region’s tree canopy and what needs to happen now to ensure we protect trees that will be increasingly important to our quality of life as the climate changes. We interview a trio of leading experts studying different aspects of why trees will be so important to our future as climate change stokes increasingly dangerous heat waves, extreme storms and flooding.
Host Marcelo Jauregui-Volpe talks with Dr. Matthew Hansen, a University of Maryland professor and the co-director of the Global Land Analysis and Discovery laboratory that studies forests globally, and Dr. Vivek Shandas, a professor at Portland State University and a leading expert on urban heat islands and their connection to discriminatory housing policies. Both give a big-picture view of national and global deforestation and their implications for our planet. We also hear from Dr. Andrew Reinmann, an assistant professor at the City University of New York at Hunter College, who provides insights into how climate change is making urban trees more vulnerable, and what it will take to help the trees stay healthy in increasingly hot and inhospitable urban areas.
We also talk with Brian LeCouteur and Michael Knapp from the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (MWCOG) about the goal of ensuring the region’s tree canopy is at least 50 percent through 2050. Rather than an expansion goal, the Council is merely seeking to stem losses, noting that the tree canopy covering the region’s 2.2 million acres fell to an estimated 49.6 percent in 2023, down from 51.3 percent in 2014. Without action, the Council says the canopy would continue declining to 44.4 percent by 2050. But meeting the goal, they say, will demand homeowners and developers working alongside foresters.
“Everybody needs to be on the same page as a region,” says LeCouteur.
Setting a goal does not ensure reaching it. As we’ve been reporting, D.C.’s progress has faltered in its quest to expand the tree canopy to cover 40 percent of the District by 2032. According to the most recent report from the District’s Urban Forestry Division, D.C.’s tree canopy declined between 2015 and 2020. Our region is not the only place finding it difficult to preserve its trees.
“The majority of cities we looked at were losing trees. It’s almost like salt on a wound,” says Shandas, “when you have a very hot neighborhood and a heatwave is coming, yet you’re seeing one of the primary means of cooling that neighborhood disappear through the loss of green space and trees,”
About “The Climate Divide”
In this fourth season of “The Climate Divide,” we’ll explore what crucial decisions need to be made today by our government to better prepare the District for extreme heat and floods, the DMV’s two biggest climate threats. Despite the city’s ambitious climate goals, there’s no guarantee that D.C. will hit its targets to eliminate fossil fuels from buildings and vehicles and expand the city’s shade-giving tree canopy.
“The Climate Divide” is hosted, produced and edited by Marcelo Jauregui-Volpe. Claudia Peralta Torres is the podcast’s sound engineer. Jaiden Hubbard, Jewel Sanchez and Sbeyde Herrera from the Society & Culture team in Hola Cultura’s Storytelling Program for Experiential Learning provided additional editing support. Christine MacDonald is the series editor and executive director of Hola Cultura. “The Climate Divide” is supported by Spotlight DC and the Fund for Investigative Journalism.
– Story by Jewel Sanchez, Sbeyde Herrera and Marcelo Jauregui-Volpe
– Copy edited by Michelle Benitez
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