The Institute For Environmental Solutions (IES) Issued Its Tree Project Phase 1 Report To Improve Colorado’s Environment

(Denver, Colorado) The Institute for Environmental Solutions (IES) today issued its Tree Project Phase 1 Report as an initial step toward increasing the capacity of trees to improve Colorado’s environment.

Trees have long been recognized for their potential to improve the environment. Yet no comprehensive scientific study has been conducted to measure these benefits. The IES Tree Project will address this gap.

“The near-term goal of the Tree Project is to determine how trees can enhance energy and water conservation and improve air quality throughout urban areas of Colorado’s Front Range,” says Carol Lyons, IES Executive Director. “Longer term, The Tree Project will enable better decisions by developers, urban planners, and homeowners about using trees to deliver the most environmental benefit for the least cost.”

In addition to assessing how trees can improve the Front Range environment, the project will also evaluate the ability of trees to reduce carbon sequestration, and thus to mitigate global warming.

During Phase 1, IES inventoried previous urban tree studies and identified work needed to fill gaps in research about the costs and benefits of urban forests. IES then convened a Stakeholder Advisory Group on November 2, 2006, at Denver Botanic Gardens to help design the project.

“We know from experience that lasting solutions to environmental problems are only possible if a broad range of stakeholders are involved from the very beginning,” said Robert E. Brady, Jr., IES Board President and Chair of the Colorado Air Quality Control Commission. “Through our design workshop, we gained valuable insight from foresters, urban planners, developers, government agencies, environmentalists, and others into how the project should be pursued.”


Based on the stakeholder project design, Phase 2 will include pilot field projects to evaluate various urban greenscapes, scientific measurement of environmental improvement and progress, and development of informational materials and outreach strategies that encourage public acceptance and application of optimal tree selection and planting guidelines.

Subtitled “Integrated Urban Environmental Improvement through Tree Selection and Management,” The Tree Project was conceived in 2004 in response to concern about the impacts of burgeoning Front Range communities on the environment and the need for integrated approaches to solving environmental problems. The state’s economy has limited resources to implement solutions to regional environmental problems. In recognition of this reality, many municipalities have expressed a desire to optimize environmental benefits from urban forests.

IES’ Phase 1 work was funded through grants from Xcel Energy Foundation, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment Pollution Prevention Advisory Board, the Boulder Department of Water Conservation, Brownstein Hyatt & Farber, SmartWool Advocacy Fund, and the Considine Family Foundation.

The Institute for Environmental Solutions is a Denver-based non-profit organization dedicated to addressing complex environmental challenges. IES uses sound, independent science to find potential solutions, develop objective evaluation methods, implement strategies, and measure and demonstrate costs and effectiveness. IES’s approach emphasizes integration across technical disciplines and inclusion of all potential stakeholders throughout project design and implementation.

The full text of the Tree Project Phase 1 Report is available by visiting www.instituteforenvironmentalsolutions.org/treeproject.html

###