Greenspace, Trees, and Ecosystems

Our tree canopy reduces storm water runoff, provides clean drinking water, reduces the effects of urban heat islands, decreases energy use in our buildings, sequesters atmospheric carbon dioxide while serving as a long-term carbon sink, and supports increasing economic growth. Increasing tree canopy coverage and health provides critical climate adaptation services. Increases should be prioritized to balance the potential for increased tree canopy with the opportunity to improve tree canopy benefit equity, potential to positively impact as many households as possible, and the need for mitigation of heat island impacts.

The suggested tree canopy increases shown to the left prioritizes based on the following weighted criteria:

• Potential for new trees: 20%
• Population density: 20%
• Low-income density (equity adjustment): 30%
• Heat island reduction need: 30%

The recommended actions in the CAP are:

1. Review city ordinances and zoning, including boulevard tree requirements, to identify impediments to tree planting and for opportunities to increase tree requirements or encourage tree planting.
2. Plant shade trees around municipal buildings to reduce indoor cooling needs, and around parks, playgrounds, and other outdoor spaces to reduce outdoor temperatures.
3. Update the City's approved street tree guide and landscape design standards for new development to highlight tree species most suited for future local climate conditions.
4. Revise parking lot guidelines to require planting islands, with a mix of canopy trees, shrubs, and groundcovers appropriate to the lot and its surroundings.
5. Increase street tree planting along bicycle routes to provide comfortable, shaded travel, especially in low-income and minority neighborhoods. See the City's 2020 Ground Cover, Heat Island and Carbon Sequestration Study(PDF, 6MB) for priority areas. Set a percentage maximum of each City- planted tree species to improve diversity, with an emphasis on species that are well-suited to future climate conditions (may include oak, hickory, hackberry, serviceberry, American hornbeam, American sycamore, linden, black gum, and disease-resistant chestnut hybrid).
6. Identify public property that could be converted to forest instead of lawns; establish educational "Climate Action Forest Projects" by planting fast-growing, zone-appropriate, high carbon-storing trees like silver maple, swamp oak, horse chestnut, black walnut, red mulberry, etc.
7. Develop neighborhood tree goals and create guidance and training to increase community stewardship of trees (e.g., opportunities for residents to learn about and take care of their neighbor- hood trees).
8. Adopt a tree preservation ordinance that requires obtaining a permit for tree removal on private property (with exceptions for diseased and nuisance trees), and develop a fee structure that does not place a burden on low-income property owners.
9. Establish codes that minimize removal of soil, ground cover, native shrubs, and require planning on-site solar utilization in a manner that minimizes conflict with existing trees.
10. Create and/or update a comprehensive street tree/urban forest management plan focused on increasing canopy cover, tree species diversity, and equitable distribution of urban forest benefits as well as promoting carbon sequestration and resilience to future climate impacts.
11. Establish incentives to encourage the use of green infrastructure and greenspace by property owners, while ensuring that these policies do not conflict with efforts to increase the city's density.

Replacing lawns with native grasses and wildflowers creates a more authentic, natural American landscape that combats climate change and provides shelter and food for songbirds and other small mammals. Compared to the typical lawn, native grasses improve water quality, reduce air pollution, provide habitat restoration and protection, and increase carbon sequestration. Nearly 3,800 acres of land in La Crosse (27% of all land) is covered in grasses. 90% of all grass land coverage is manicured, mowed lawns with the remaining 10% being native/prairie grasses.

The recommended actions in the CAP are:

1. Require and/or incentivize developers to plant shade and water-absorbing trees, and replace turf landscaping with native prairie, wild flower, and savanna plantings.
2. Promote “Carbon Gardening” and "landscaping for absorption" practices among residents for lawns, ornamental gardens, and produce gardens. Strategies include native moisture tolerant perennial plantings and shrubs, elimination of synthetic fertilizer and pesticide use, high mow deck settings, use of biochar amendments, and polyculture lawn mixture.
3. Require integrated pest management practices and non-petrochemical fertilizer use on City- owned land.
4. Educate community on integrated pest management practices and non-petrochemical fertilizer use.
5. Establish ‘demonstration yards’ on City-owned property to exhibit strategies for pollinator- friendly landscaping, native plantings, and permaculture.
6. Set a percentage maximum of each City-planted tree species to improve diversity, with an emphasis on species that are well-suited to future climate conditions (may include oak, hickory, hackberry, serviceberry, American hornbeam, American sycamore, linden, black gum, and disease -resistant chestnut hybrid).
7. Conduct a park and city facility turf analysis and conversion study to identify lesser maintenance turf and ground cover types, to determine Native Plant and Pollinator Restoration Opportunities, and to establish a conversion master plan and turf replacement implementation schedule.
8. Commit to sustained participation in the Mayors Monarch Pledge to support pollinators, promote native plant landscaping, and discourage the use of pesticides.
9. Provide or promote workshops on the roles that gardening, landscaping, and composting have in mitigating and adapting to the stresses of climate change.
10. Incentivize the conversion of traditional lawns and non-native landscaping into pollinator friendly food gardens, permaculture, wildflowers, or native grasses to support endangered native pollinators.

Increased heat island effects raise human discomfort and health risk levels in developed areas, especially during heat waves which are projected to become more severe and more common for La Crosse. There is a direct relationship between impervious surface coverage of a community and the amount of heat island temperature increase, particularly dark impervious surfaces. Dark impervious surfaces are dark colored building and pavement surfaces made from materials that absorb more light than they reflect such as asphalt, black roof membranes. Decreasing the amount of dark impervious surfaces will help decrease heat island impacts in La Crosse.

The bar chart provides a side-by-side comparison of land cover by Census Tract. The trend lines indicate census tracts with more lower-income residents have less tree and grass coverage and more dark impervious surfaces.

The recommended actions in the CAP are:

1. Require all commercial development projects receiving City-funding, PUD approval, and/or Conditional Use Permitting to implement heat island mitigation strategies including cool surfaces, solar-friendly landscape shading strategies, impervious surface reduction, and breeze capture.
2. Promote and require urban design and redevelopment approaches that incorporate natural systems and green infrastructure into site improvements, rights of way, green corridors and other infrastructure facilities.
3. Create a demonstration green roof, green/live wall, and/or vertical garden project, and include these categories in projects that qualify for stormwater fee credit.
4. Reduce concrete on parklands (encourage construction of water permeable park lots and walk- ways) and encourage the most sustainable surface material.
5. Expand and connect green spaces so they are welcoming and within walking distance of all residents, especially in underserved communities where there is a high proportion of impervious surfaces.
6. Incentivize/award projects that reduce heat islands, prioritizing areas with the highest heat island coefficients as identified in the City's 2021 Ground Cover, Tree Canopy, and Carbon Sequestration(PDF, 6MB) Study. Incentives might include below-market loans, product rebates, grants, and giveaways. Awards can reward exemplary work, highlight innovation, and promote solutions across the public and private sectors.

Greenspaces provide important physical, mental, and emotional health for those who have access, including reducing chronic diseases and associated risk factors. In terms of climate action, greenspaces are critical in helping to mitigate climate change impacts and contribute to increased resiliency for recovering from climate change impacts. Urban greenspaces, in particular, have been shown to be essential for maintaining species richness and biodiversity of modern urban areas—and by extension their surrounding region.

The recommended actions in the CAP are:

1. Incorporate consideration of climate change impacts into forest management plans and practices to increase climate resilience, retain biodiversity, and ensure continued ecosystem function and services.
2. Map and protect natural areas throughout the City through improved public lands management/ ownership and promotion of conservation easements and private open spaces, with an emphasis on conservation of areas that provide ecosystem services such as wetlands and late-successional forests.
3. Use education programs and incentives to promote the use of native plants and trees on public and private property.
4. Develop a list of harmful invasive plants (i.e., those known to reduce biodiversity or alter ecosystem processes) commonly used in landscaping and provide native alternatives to each non-native species. Publicize the list widely and encourage plant nurseries and landscapers to provide the native alternatives.
5. Identify multiple biological indicators of climate change sensitivity and response to monitor high- risk assets for intervention as well as to measure ongoing improvements in resilience.
6. Protect and connect floodplains and other habitats that support high biodiversity, including birds and wildlife species needing to alter their range.
7. Conduct scenario planning exercises focused on land management under novel future conditions to ensure that management decisions reflect the full range of potential impacts and are based on the best available science.

Trees and natural ground cover play a central role in supporting community physical and mental health, improving air and water quality, helping to reduce building energy use, reducing stormwater runoff, and supporting climate mitigation. Healthy tree and native grass coverage sequester carbon and help reduce the atmospheric GHG emissions that drive climate change. Trees are critical in filtering air and removing harmful pollutants such as carbon monoxide, particulate matter, and ground-level ozone.

Conversely, higher levels of impervious surfaces (pavement and buildings) within a community will increase the heat island effect on the community. Heat island refers to the phenomenon of higher atmospheric and surface temperatures occurring in developed areas than those in the surrounding rural areas due to human activities and infrastructure. Increased heat indices during summer months due to heat island effects raise human discomfort and health risk levels in developed areas, especially during heat waves. There is a direct relationship between the amount of impervious surface coverage of a community and the corresponding degree of heat island temperature experienced—meaning a conscious effort to increase greenspace and tree canopy coverage in areas of higher heat island impacts can lower those impacts.

• Climate impacts on existing parks, conservation areas, and other green spaces, and how that may be altered by changes in temperature and precipitation in coming decades.
• Potential impacts of climate change on patterns of use around parks and recreational areas.

• Lower-income neighborhoods and neighborhoods with higher proportions of people of color regularly have lower tree canopy coverage, and less of the environmental, economic, and quality-of-life benefits trees support than more affluent neighborhoods.
• Frequently neighborhoods with higher vulnerable populations have the highest heat island impacts.