Redlining with avocode
We’ll explore the hidden history that made shade unavailable to many communities of color, why planting trees is more complicated than you’d think, and how to expand the canopy as the planet continues to heat up. This week: Everyone needs trees, but not everyone gets to have them. And this is Overheard, a show where we eavesdrop on the wild conversations we have here at Nat Geo and follow them to the edges of our big, weird, beautiful world. So it became very, very near and dear to me to want to really support our efforts to increase tree canopy in regions that don't have them.ĬHEN: I’m Eli Chen, senior podcast editor at National Geographic. These vibrant yellow flowers against the blue sky is just phenomenal.ĬHEN: She’s here to help take care of the trees so that everyone can enjoy them, including her neighbors. So beautiful-this canopy is absolutely gorgeous. So what we try to do is make sure that we put these stakes back, so that way the tree will grow nice and straight, and it’ll give it that reinforcement.ĬHEN: She gets out some tools and starts hammering the stake back in. Sometimes they just break and residents remove them. GARCIA: I see that this tree has had the stake removed for whatever reason. Eileen stops at another tree, a gold medallion that’s easily identified by its big yellow flowers. Tree care can be expensive, time consuming, and require a ton of communication with the local community. But the solution isn’t to plant more trees.
So that means there isn't air conditioning-because it's a lower income communities.ĬHEN: Less shade means less relief from hot summer days, which are only going to increase due to climate change. Research shows that urban neighborhoods impacted by redlining-or, racist housing policies in the 20th century-have far less shade compared to more wealthy, predominantly white neighborhoods. In recent years, TreePeople has been planting trees in areas like Huntington Park that historically haven’t had a lot of trees compared to other parts of the city. for TreePeople, an environmental nonprofit that aims to plant more trees in the city. She’s the regional manager in southeast L.A. GARCIA: My top priority for this particular tree, since it’s so scorched, is getting the 15 gallons of water into it, which is basically about three buckets’ worth, and putting down a layer of mulch to protect it from that rapid evaporation.ĬHEN: This is a part of Eileen’s job.