3 superpowers of green space

Our yards, parks, and other public green spaces are environmental superheroes. They capture and filter rainwater, produce oxygen, and absorb carbon. Your yard is also an important part of the connected ecosystem that provides food and shelter for pollinators, such as birds, bees, butterflies, bats, and other creatures.

Here are just a few of the many environmental benefits our yards and other community green space provide.

Heat Island Mitigation
Living landscapes combat the heat island effect in urban areas. In fact, according to researchers in Australia, domestic yards account for more than 40% of tree cover and 30% of grass cover. That the density of greenery in household yards kept land surface temperatures up to 6˚ cooler than non-vegetated areas.

Air Quality Improvement
More than 160,000 people could die over the next decade from strokes and heart attacks caused by air pollution, the British Heart Foundation (BHF) warns. Even short-term exposure to ambient air pollution has been associated with mental health issues in children, especially anxiety and risk of suicide.But according to scientists in Brazil, urban forests can help mitigate air pollution, making cities better able to manage climate change and making them more livable.

Carbon Sequestration
Carbon sinks absorb the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Plants absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to use in photosynthesis. Some of this carbon is transferred to soil as plants die and decompose.The dense canopy and fibrous root system in a lawn sequesters carbon so well that it outweighs the carbon used for maintaining the grass by as much as seven-fold. Fun fact: an average-sized home lawn in the U.S. has the potential to sequester 20.3 to 163.4 kg C/lawn/year.

Want to learn more about the superhero powers of our backyards and community green spaces? Go to TurfMutt.com.