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March 1st, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda THURSDAY, March 1 (HealthDay News) —
An estimated 4 million trees are disappearing from urban areas in the
United States each year, a new study found.
A little less than 1 percent of urban tree cover is being lost
annually.
Researchers from the U.S. Forest Service used satellite imagery to
analyze the amount of tree cover compared to the amount of land covered by
pavement, rooftops, grass or bare soil in 20 U.S. cities. They found tree
cover declined in 17 of the cities, most markedly in New Orleans, Houston
and Albuquerque, N.M. (New Orleans’s tree loss, however, is most likely
due to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the researchers
noted.)
“Trees are an important part of the urban landscape,” Michael Rains,
director of the Forest Service‘s Northern Research Station, said in a
Forest Service news release. “They play a role in improving air and water
quality and provide so many environmental and social benefits.”
Trees also have an economic benefit: helping reduce heating and cooling
costs.
“Our urban forests are under stress, and it will take all of us working
together to improve the health of these crucial green spaces,” U.S. Forest
Service Chief Tom Tidwell said in the news release.
The researchers encouraged more tree-planting efforts to help stop the
loss.
“Tree cover loss would be higher if not for the tree-planting efforts
cities have undertaken in the past several years,” said the Forest
Service’s David Nowak, who authored the study with his colleague, Eric
Greenfield. “Tree planting campaigns are helping to increase, or at least
reduce the loss of, urban tree cover, but reversing the trend may demand
more widespread, comprehensive and integrated programs that focus on
sustaining overall tree canopy.”
The study, which was published in Urban Forestry Urban
Greening, showed that 16 cities had an increase in “impervious” cover,
that is, pavement and rooftops. The cities with the greatest increase in
impervious cover were Los Angeles, Houston and Albuquerque.
Of the 20 cities studied, Atlanta had the most tree cover (54 percent),
while Denver had the least (10 percent). New York City led all cities in
impervious cover (61 percent), while Nashville had the least (18
percent).
Syracuse, N.Y., was the only city in the study to show an increase in
tree cover. Researchers said, however, the increase was due to the
proliferation of European buckthorn, an invasive shrub from Europe.
More information
The U.S. Department of Agriculture provides more information on urban and community
forestry.
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