How trees provide cool, clean air
When it comes to climate change, trees are the planet’s first responders. A single mature tree can absorb 48 pounds of carbon dioxide per year and produce enough oxygen for four people to breathe for a day. Collectively, trees across the United States remove 17.4 million tons of pollutants from the air, ensuring we have not just oxygen but clean air to breathe. They even cool cities by as much as 10 degrees Fahrenheit, reducing air conditioning costs and protecting physical and mental health.
Trees ask for little beyond sunlight, air, water and space, yet give us so much in return. Beyond cooling and cleaning the air, they safeguard wildlife, ensure we have enough food and water, and offer us places to play, reflect and draw inspiration. We must protect and restore these vital resources. For climate. For people. For our future.
How American Forests is helping
For 150 years, American Forests has recognized that trees are something to be treasured and protected, planting millions of trees, including 65 million in the past 35 years alone.
By the time those trees reach 50 years old, they will have absorbed 26 million tons of carbon dioxide, helping to reduce global warming and clean the air. Across landscapes large and small, American Forests has been a leader in climate-smart restoration, bringing forests charred by climate-driven wildfires or disease back to life with resilience for future risks.
Climate change remains an ever-present threat, but American Forests continues developing innovative solutions to ensure trees in cities and landscapes across the country can continue bringing benefits to people, wildlife and the planet.
Addressing a climate of discrimination
Climate change intensifies extreme heat. This makes trees’ vital role in both addressing climate change and cooling neighborhoods an urgent public health issue — especially for communities most vulnerable to impacts.
Adella Bass knows the benefits of trees more than most. Having lived on the south side of Chicago her entire life, her summers are increasingly centered around finding ways to beat the heat and breathe easy — for herself and for her neighbors.
As the health equity director for People for Community Recovery, a local nonprofit, Bass advocates for and connects people with vital health resources — especially Black and Brown residents in the city’s hottest neighborhoods. She has both professional and personal reasons that having access to a cool place to live and work is essential for survival.
Photo Credit: Carlos Javier Ortiz
“As someone living with heart failure, extreme heat is more than just uncomfortable — it’s a real health risk,” she says. “I have to be very intentional about my daily routine, like staying indoors during peak heat hours, keeping hydrated and listening closely to my body. But I also think about my neighbors — seniors, young children and others with health conditions — who may not have access to cooling centers or safe, shaded spaces. For us, high heat can literally be life-threatening, and it highlights why addressing urban heat isn’t just about comfort, it’s about survival.”
In 2023, Bass participated in an urban heat mapping project that revealed predominantly Black and Brown communities in South Chicago experienced the hottest temperatures — up to 22 degrees Fahrenheit warmer in some locations.
“The Heat Watch study confirms what we’ve been feeling for decades — environmental injustice is real,” Bass says. “To fix this, we need intentional, equitable action: planting and maintaining more trees, creating shaded spaces, and ensuring access to cooling centers and resources. It’s also about changing policy so communities most affected by urban heat are prioritized for funding and solutions.”
American Forests has long recognized this inequity. Our data show that lower-income neighborhoods have 36% less tree cover and are 6 degrees warmer than higher-income neighborhoods in the summer, while communities of color tend to have 45% less urban canopy and are 9 degrees warmer. But thanks to tools like Tree Equity Score, Bass and the communities she represents can now see a street-level view of the hottest areas in their city — and, most importantly, take action to ensure the benefits of trees, including their climate benefits, are accessible to everyone.
A major barrier to ensuring equitable access to trees has been a lack of financial resources for the neighborhoods most in need. But with the Inflation Reduction Act’s historic $1.5 billion investment in the Urban and Community Forestry Program — an effort championed by American Forests — and our collective, holistic approach to Tree Equity, this obstacle has been significantly reduced.
Through our Tree Equity Catalyst Fund, American Forests has already invested $42 million dollars from the Inflation Reduction Act in 33 cities and 22 faith- and community-based frontline organizations, helping them establish and grow Tree Equity programs in their communities and drive this work forward through their deep connections to the specific needs of their local communities. Through our collective action approach, American Forests is helping to ensure the climate-boosting benefits of trees reach every neighborhood.
Climate-smart restoration in Paradise
Fueled by climate change, the 2018 Camp Fire burned 240 square miles across California’s Butte County, destroying 18,000 buildings and claiming 85 lives. The towns of Paradise and Concow were nearly wiped off the map in the state’s deadliest wildfire.
When the smoke cleared, American Forests and the Bureau of Land Management created the most comprehensive, climate-focused reforestation plan ever developed at that time by a federal agency. The plan envisioned how to equip the ecosystem for a future of higher temperatures, shifting rainfall and a “thirstier atmosphere.” Researchers found that fire seasons would grow longer — with bigger, more frequent fires.
By combining spatial analytics and climate forecasts, the restoration plan identified which soil types, trees and plants are most likely to thrive in the future. On Bureau of Land Management lands around Paradise and Magalia, the plan called for actions such as:
- Assisted migration — moving seedlings from warmer, lower areas to higher altitudes to help them adapt faster
- Vegetation management — removing competing plants to improve seedling survival
- Forest transition — shifting some restoration sites toward more resilient, oak-dominated forests
Climate-smart restoration is our most innovative way to fight back against the toughest opponent we’ll ever encounter. There’s no one-size-fits all answer. What works in one area may not be successful in another. But together, these techniques follow one guiding principle: implementing innovative solutions that are always backed by science.
Trees have shielded us from climate impacts for millennia. For 150 years, American Forests has worked to ensure they can continue that mission — creating innovative solutions, fostering collective action and building a climate-resilient future for all.