Duke Blue Devils Grab Their Pitchforks to Keep Durham Beautiful

Planting Trees

(l to r) Students Sam Zepeda, Risa Pieters and (crouching) Simone Pitre keeping Durham beautiful by planting trees at Sherwood Githens Middle School

Published April 29, 2015, last updated on October 18, 2017 under Voices of DGHI

By Simone Pitre '16, biology and global health major

Over the course of this spring semester, Duke University undergraduate students from Dr. Sumi Ariely’s service-learning course, Global Health Ethics, have been pitching in with the nonprofit organization, Keep Durham Beautiful, to make Durham a little greener. Dr. Ariely, an Assistant Professor of the Practice in Global Health, teaches the global health ethics course in addition to a course on global health research methods.

Throughout February and March, students were presented with the opportunity to work with local volunteers to plant and mulch trees at various middle schools in Durham, as well as on Duke’s very own campus. By volunteering a few hours at a time, students helped to build upon existing local forestry while improving community health and contributing to greater global environmental health. Though the topic of global health sounds like it revolves around service to the international community, Ariely’s ethics students learned that lending a helping hand in their own backyard could make a significant contribution to the global health community that falls within U.S. borders.

The importance of urban forestry to health often gets overlooked in the U.S. because trees are primarily known for adding aesthetic value to neighborhoods and backyards. While these trees do offer a beautiful landscape for individuals in the community, the presence of vegetation in urban spaces is also useful for air filtration, micro-climate regulation, and mental stress relief, just to name a few of the health benefits.

According to researchers at Stockholm University, vegetation reduces air pollution by filtering out air particles through the surface of the plant leaves. While deciduous trees, like oaks and maples, have a greater ability to absorb gases, coniferous trees, such as pines and spruces, have a larger total surface area of needles to filter the air.1 With the right combination of these trees in a park, one study suggests that up to 85% of the air pollution in the area can be filtered, and for a street lined with trees, successful filtration can reach up to 70%.2 With cleaner air to breathe in the school playgrounds and on school property, Durham middle school students can enjoy their active time outside, knowing that their lungs are breathing in healthier oxygen.

As for micro-climate regulation, the overwhelming heat of North Carolina summers is tamed with the help of vegetation. In one environmental study, researchers found that “a single large tree can transpire 450 liters of water per day,” consuming 1000 MJ of heat energy to aid with natural evaporation.3  By doing this, urban forests help to lower the temperatures during scorching summers so that they are more bearable to citizens, especially individuals more vulnerable to health difficulties from the heat.

Finally, the psychological benefits from natural ecosystems are endless. Studies have shown that natural environments drive individual stress levels down rapidly compared to urban environments that caused subjects to increase or maintain their mental stress levels.4 In addition, another study found that hospital patients with rooms facing parks had 10% faster recovery times and required 50% less strong pain-relieving medications compared with patients with rooms facing building walls. By placing more greenery around Durham, and especially in school environments, individuals are anticipated to experience reduced stress from home life, work, and/or school.  

The Keep Durham Beautiful Organization and its projects are necessary to the health of the Durham community for these health reasons and more. Volunteers interested in future tree planting or mulching projects are encouraged to reach out to Megan Carroll or Katie Rose Levin for more information about upcoming events. Additional information about the organization, Keep Durham Beautiful, can be found at keepdurhambeautiful.org.

References:

1. Bolund, Per, and Sven Hunhammar. "Ecosystem Services in Urban Areas."Ecological Economics 29.2 (1999): 293-301. Web. 20 Mar. 2015.

2. Bernatzky, A., 1983. The effects of trees on the urban climate. In: Trees in the 21st Century. Academic Publishers, Berkhamster, pp. 59–76.

3. Hough, M., 1989. City Form and Natural Process. Routledge, London 280 pp.

4. Ulrich, R.S., Simons, R.F., Losito, B.D., Fiorito, E., Miles, M.A., Zelson, M., 1991. Stress recovery during exposure to natural an