How our trees clean our water.
To help improve the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, and the water we depend on, trees are being used on larger projects, that allow water to flow into a forest, or forest buffer.
The trees improve our water in many ways, along with providing their other benefits of air pollution control, shade, beauty, and wildlife benefit.
That’s just a single tree.
According to our i-Tree Eco study, our trees in Arlington alone, capture 80,267,230 Gallons every year!
Keeping it in the soil and filtering: Infiltration and Storage Trees are designed by evolution to make the best use of every drop that falls on their canopy.
Their leaves and branches act like a giant capturing device, to get precious water to the tree’s roots.
This stored water can then be used to grow the tree, and evaporate this water back into the air, once more preventing it from impacting our stormwater system.
Forest buffers as a stormwater device In the case of the Bluemont Baseball field, there were some restrictions to using this tool, but it was perfect for this project.
These are some of the restrictions to using forest buffers for stormwater credit: You need a fairly flat slope, and space to accommodate the water to flow through slowly Very flat slopes (1-4%) can use a 35 ft buffer Moderately flat slopes (4-6%) need 50 ft Steeper slopes (6-8%) need 65 Ft Soils must be able to drain and store the water Wider benefits These solutions can have a great positive impact on our community, and has many benefits over traditional stormwater infrastructure: This technique is a non-engineered, nature-based solution to stormwater Near streamsides, forest buffers can significantly improve tree canopy and our natural habitat Lower cost than engineered solutions, in most cases Learn more How trees Tame Stormwater, by the Arbor Day Foundation: https://www.arborday.org/trees/stormwater.cfm Benefits of Forest Buffers by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation: http://www.chesapeakebay.net/issues/issue/forest_buffers Forest Buffers presentation to the Urban forestry Commission: https://arlingtonva.s3.dualstack.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2017/07/Forest-Buffers-and-Stormwater.pdf