The USDA Forest Service and NIST have teamed up to teach us minions a very important lesson: trees provide shade, and shade can help keep your house cool, which means you won’t need to run the air conditioner as much if you plant trees near your house. I know, I know…it’s a complicated lesson. To be fair, the authors of the study acknowledge that their results are not surprising. Also, they do map out optimal placement of trees; although this is another common sense finding – in Sacramento, CA, trees planted to the south and west are most effective.
But, the wasteful spending by governments gets better!
6:51 pm on January 5, 2009The Sacramento Municipal Utility District operates an active tree planting program and residents are eligible for up to 10 free trees annually through a program delivered in partnership with the Sacramento Tree Foundation. …In 2007, the Sacramento Municipal Utility District gave its customers about 16,000 free trees (at a cost of $85.00 a tree). The district will recoup this investment in 26 years provided trees are planted on the west side of a house.
