News In Focus

It's easy to quantify the value of trees grown and timbered in a managed wood lot. That lumber is used to build houses and furniture and produce cellulose for plastics as well as a vast range of other products that have direct economic value. What about the trees planted in your yard or along urban streets? What are they worth? Research shows that an average tree will give back $2,168.00 worth of environmental benefits over the next 15 years.

  

How does that tree benefit you?

• Trees save money by shading your home in the summer, saving up to 25-50% of your utility expense during summer months.
• Trees can increase the property value of your home by 15% or more.
• According to the Arbor Day Foundation, a mature leafy tree produces as much oxygen in a season as 10 people inhale in a year.
• Trees slow down and absorb the first 30% of most precipitation events through their leaf system. This moisture never hits the ground. Another 30% of the precipitation that makes it through the leaves is absorbed into the ground and taken up through the root structure to later be transpired back to the air. One mature spruce tree can intercept more than 1000 gallons of water annually when fully grown.
• A mature tree absorbs from 120 to 240 lbs. of small air pollution particles and gases per year.
• "Phytoremediation" is the term used for a tree's ability to absorb dangerous chemicals and other pollutants in the soil. Trees can either store harmful pollutants or actually change the pollutant into a less harmful form. Tree roots can filter sewage and agricultural chemicals, reduce the effects of animal wastes, clean road side spills and clean water runoff into streams.
• Trees muffle urban noise almost as effectively as stone walls. Trees planted at strategic points in a neighborhood or around a house can abate noise from freeways and airports.
• A tree absorbs and locks away carbon dioxide in its wood, roots, and leaves.  A forest is a carbon storage area or "reservoir" that can lock up as much carbon (as wood) as it produces and reduce "green-house" gas in the area.

How can you get a bargain on trees to plant in your yard?

Take part in the York County, PA or the Carroll County, MD Annual Tree Seedling Sale.  Find information about the York County sale (order deadline: March 25, 2013) at www.yorkccd.org.  

Information about the Carroll County Tree Sale (order deadline: February 28, 2013) can be found at www.carrollsoil.com/treesale.html. Other local County Soil Conservation Districts offer similar seedling sale programs as well.

In another Carroll County program, a free 25 tree kit is offered to qualifying property owners who will plant trees to form a stream buffer on their property. More information about this program is available at www.dnr.maryland.gov/forests/pdfs/byb_program.pdf. An application for the Carroll County Backyard Buffers program is available at ccfb.gardentoable.net.

Can you ... NAME THAT SITE? 

Be the first reader to call or e-mail us with the correct location of this site and you can win a lunch with your choice of Doug, Reg, or Kristin to pick up the tab.

 HINTS:

1.  This project is a building addition to an existing south Hanover, PA business.  

2.  The site recently changed ownership.     

Please contact Hanover Land Service if additional hints are needed.  

E-mail your guess to office@hanoverlandservices.com or  

call Gail at our Hanover office 717-637-5674.     

The correct location of this month's site will be revealed in our next newsletter!

Answer to November 2012 Name That Site:   

Union Mills Homestead, Carroll County, MD 

to your comments, questions and suggestions!

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