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Demographics affected

Relationship between neighborhood income and tree canopy cover

In a 2010 study, researchers at Auburn University and University of Southern California concluded that low-income neighborhoods tend to have significantly less trees than neighborhoods with higher incomes. They describe this unequal distribution of trees as a demand for “luxury,” rather than “necessity.” According to the study, “for every 1 percent increase in per capita income, demand for forest cover increased by 1.76 percent. But when income dropped by the same amount, demand decreased by 1.26 percent.”

Additionally, many blogging sites overlay satellite imagery provided by google maps and census data to confirm or debunk the aforementioned research.

Relationship between race and tree canopy cover

In 2013, researchers from the University of California, Berkeley published a study regarding the racial distribution of "heat risk-related land cover." They found that “blacks were 52 percent more likely than whites to live [in a neighborhood with poor tree cover] in such neighborhoods, Asians 32 percent more likely, and Hispanics 21 percent more likely.” Bill Jesdale, from the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management at University of California, Berkeley, and one of the study's authors, explained that there is "less shared investment" in "racial stratified" communities, which "shows up in the trees [inequality phenomenon]." According to Jesdale, "segregated places may be less likely to make collective investments, and collective investments are precisely what's needed to support environmental improvements for everyone like planting more trees."

Relationship between crime and tree canopy cover

Many research studies have correlated crime with tree cover, of lack thereof. Austin Troy, environmental researcher for University of Vermont, found that a 10% increase in tree canopy was associated with a roughly 12% decrease in crime in Baltimore, Maryland." "Even after controlling for factors known to influence crime statistics — income, race, population density , said Eric Jaffe of The Atlantic Cities newsletter, "they found the aforementioned link between more trees and less crime"

In a three year study in Portland, Oregon, Geoffrey H. Donovan and Jeffrey P. Prestemon, from the United States Department of Agriculture, found that "smaller, view-obstructing trees are associated with increased crime, whereas larger trees are associated with reduce crime." The authors attribute this relationship to James Q. Wilson's "broken windows" theory, in which they "speculate that trees may reduce crime by signaling to potential criminals that a house is better cared for and, therefore, subject to more effective authority than a comparable house with fewer trees."