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Natural Awakenings Healthy Living Magazine

Breathing Room

Growing Cities Must Add Woodlands

The U.S. Forest Service has determined that as the acreage of urban environments more than doubles between 2010 and 2060, green spaces and urban forests need to expand to maintain air quality, moderate climate change and lower energy use. The federal agency, a division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, favors an increase in the tree canopy. that can save cities billions of dollars in pollution removal, energy efficiency and carbon sequestration.