As a relatively small-but-growing city, Morgantown now faces the same problems previously faced by bigger cities — which were once small-but-growing cities, too. Growth requires development: commercial spaces, residential buildings, parking, related infrastructure, etc. Development, however, is often detrimental to the environment.
Morgantown is now in that place where it must carefully consider how much land it should develop to meet the area’s growing economic and residential demands, and how much to leave as pristine green space. For example: The 14 wooded acres between E. Brockway Avenue, in upper Marilla Park, and White Avenue that the Mon Valley Green Space Coalition would like BOPARC to designate as a “Community Forest” through the national nonprofit Old-Growth Forest Network.
We have the rare opportunity to look at what other cities have done and learn from their mistakes. Large cities are figuring out the hard way how trading trees and grass for concrete and steel impacts humans just as much as it does plants and wildlife. The heatwaves that have scorched much of the nation this summer tend to be felt even more acutely in places with little greenery. Pavement, glass and metal absorb and emit heat, creating urban heat islands that can be 1-7 degrees hotter during the day and 2-5 degrees hotter at night than rural areas, according to the USDA.
On the other hand, “Trees, vegetation, and water can cool the air by providing shade, releasing water from plant leaves, and evaporation from bodies of water like lakes, rivers, and ponds,” according to the EPA. And vegetation can cool an urban area by up to 4.5 degrees. This is a lesson many cities are learning the hard way, and now they are trying to recreate green spaces they had previously paved over. Austin, Texas, for example, will require 50% tree canopy coverage in the city by 2050; San Francisco requires 15% of roofs larger than 2,000 square feet be covered in solar panels or vegetation (a green roof, which dissipates heat instead of amplifying it).
Trees and grass don’t just help combat heat islands — plants are also natural CO2 scrubbers, drawing carbon dioxide out of the air as part of photosynthesis. Trees, in particular, are the original carbon sequestration system. Some urban areas are adding greenery wherever they can to help cut back net CO2 emissions. Plants also have the added benefit of helping control stormwater runoff and reduce flooding.
Morgantown is fortunate to still have many green spaces. But as the city grows, it will have to face the difficult choice of what land to develop. We think it would be worthwhile to preserve the requested 14 acres as a community forest. The Mon Valley Green Space Coalition and Rick Landenberger, who made the request on its behalf, made valid points about the wooded area acting as a de facto old growth forest, making it home to a unique kind of biodiversity. That alone would be reason to preserve it. But as we’ve shown, maintaining green spaces within the city has many other benefits as well. Taken altogether, we think this information lays out a convincing case for BOPARC to make the designation, and we hope it will.
