City Tree Biodiversity Helps Protect Urban Forests - And Our Health

A new study of 5.6 million trees across 63 U.S. cities’ tree inventories suggests city leaders arranging tree planting shouldn’t just decide on tree species based on hardiness and appearance – they should also consider mixing species strategically and planting more native species.

The study, published in the journal eLife, found that urban trees tended to be clustered by species in 98% of cities studied, even among cities which had relatively high levels of tree species diversity. About 46% of urban trees in U.S. cities were introduced species.

Read more at Next City.