Researchers suggest reforestation around urban areas to reduce ozone levels

(Phys.org) —A team of research conservationists with members from several universities in the U.S. is suggesting in a paper they've had published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, that urban areas could benefit by investing in cost effective reforestation efforts around urban areas that currently suffer from high ozone levels. Planting trees, they suggest could help cities bring those levels down.

The researchers note that despite aggressive efforts by many metropolitan areas to lower ozone levels in ground level air, levels remain high, causing the populations that live in them to live with an increased risk of health problems—prior research has indicated that as many as 152,000 premature deaths each year can be attributed to the damage ozone inflicts on lungs. Current efforts to combat ozone levels are aimed at the source, factory emissions, etc. Laws limiting emissions have not kept up with growth however, leading to increases in ozone levels. The researchers suggest a different approach—remove the ozone by planting trees. They suggest that land be purchased on the outskirts of cities with high ozone levels to be converted to forest—trees they note, remove both ozone, and one of its precursors.

To bolster their point, the researchers looked at the Houston metro area in Texas, a part of the country with consistently high ozone levels. Land that is currently used for agriculture on the outskirts, they claim, could be purchased and replanted with trees, creating a 1.5-square-mile forest. They estimate that over a 30 year period, the reforested area could reduce ozone and precursors in ground-level air by 310 tons. They also note that if fast growing trees were planted, timber harvests could help make up initial outlays and loss of local revenue from agricultural products.

The researchers also plotted potential targets on a map of the U.S., highlighting areas where reforestation would likely do the most good—along the I-95 corridor in the northeast, for example, and around Chicago, Detroit and many parts of California. The team concludes by noting that if something isn't done, the problem of ozone pollution is only likely to get worse in the face of both continued growth and as global warming exacerbates the problem.