Everyone is agreement that planting trees is a good idea but urban areas are having trouble meeting goals. Not because they’re not planting, but because the trees are removed before they can reach maturity. Finding a way to overcome this issue is key to meeting environmental targets.

Trees are great in cities, they have a number of benefits besides just making an area look and feel better to the people who live and work there. They also counteract heat islands, absorb noise, and of course, carbon. They’re important! But they are being removed before they can grow.

The study found smaller, therefore younger, trees were being removed mostly around developments. The focus on planting trees is nice but the key is to keep the ones that are already in the ground healthy and protected so that they can continue to provide the benefits to urban areas.