Ramona Gardens is a public housing complex of more than 100 two-story buildings with more than 600 apartments next to the constant roar, buzz and exhaust of Interstate 10. Residents of Ramona Gardens were naturally concerned about the freeway’s impact, so the advocacy group they founded, Legacy LA, produced a study estimating that 218,000 cars and trucks drive by daily, spewing toxic pollution into the air that can cause asthma and cardiovascular disease as well as impair lung development. With no air conditioning in the units, apartment windows are often open. A robust grove of trees and plants could help offset the effects of that pollution, the study concluded, validating what residents long believed.
At one end of Ramona Gardens, the group North East Trees is planting nearly 400 trees. Legacy LA is also developing plans, seeded by an almost $1 million federal grant, to turn a large vacant swath into a park with 250 trees and 15,000 plants. The leaves, branches and stems of plants and trees provide cover — called “tree canopy” — that lowers heat and improves air quality. Alyza Gonzalez, leadership program coordinator with Legacy LA, said trees clean the air and create attractive spaces that inspire the community to gather outside and tend to the land. “The trees not only improve the air quality, but the quality of life here,” she said.
The actions of the Ramona Gardens residents show how a community, even one without a lot of money, is capable of deciding what they need to improve their health. It is up to those with money and power to hear them and plant those trees.
Nationwide, the amount of urban tree canopy reflects the wealth and race of an area’s residents — communities of color and low-income neighborhoods suffer from less tree cover and shade. In California, where cities were built over dry, shrubby terrain, per capita urban tree canopy is the lowest in the 50 states.
Urban tree canopy can absorb pollution primarily in two ways. Leaves can directly absorb harmful gases like sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide. Trees can capture particulate matter — chemicals, dust, soot and metal particles less than a human hair’s width — from cars, trucks and factories. Fine particulates stick to leaves and stems.