 Hello and welcome to Out and About on the Think Tech Live streaming network series broadcasting from our downtown studio at Pioneer Plaza in the core of downtown Honolulu. I'm your host Winston Welch and I'm delighted you're joining us today or on the internet a little bit later where we're going to explore a variety of topics every other week on organizations, events and the people who fuel them in our city, state, country and world. And any views expressed by me or any opinions expressed by me are strictly my own and not necessarily connected with any organization. That said joining me in the studio today I am delighted to have Dr. Lisa Martin who is a board member of Trees for Honolulu, a non-profit coalition of community organizations, governmental agencies, businesses and individuals working towards increasing Honolulu's and the state of Hawaii's forest canopy. Today we're going to discuss the organization and its lofty ideals and its upcoming conference open to the public which will be held on March, it says March 9th but I want to say it's March 5th, no it's March 9th Friday, yes at the All-Away Golf Course Ballroom. So with that I would like to welcome Lisa to the show today. So thank you for being a guest. Thank you so much for having me. It's really an exciting opportunity. You know it's this idea of Trees for Honolulu's future. I think a lot of people would think, well it's Honolulu's a green space already, what is Trees for Honolulu's future, what is this organization, how did it start and what's it about? Well basically the idea is that in Trees have always had a huge amount of benefits but with climate change which I'm sure everybody here can feel that it is getting hotter right, we don't have to wonder, Trees will allow us to maintain our outdoor lifestyle that we enjoy so much here in Honolulu and the issue with Trees is they take a long time to grow and a lot of the benefits from Trees we derive from mature trees and there's actually a saying that really caught my attention it said the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, the second best time is today so we are trying to get that going today and accelerate the planting of Trees in Honolulu so that as the climate warms we can maintain our quality of life. So it's really very much an issue about quality of life and being able to literally go outside and walk down the street as we're going to get hotter and hotter and other benefits as well that we'll get into a little bit later specifically on the benefits of Trees but we have we've been losing forest canopy in Honolulu from what I understand. That's true you know Hawaii being in the tropics we do have beautiful trees you know there are programs that recognize some of our amazing exceptional trees but our actual canopy is not that is not as widespread as in a lot of major cities we're actually not doing that well do we have that yeah we have a we have a graphic actually that shows it's it's one that's going to show about the coverage of of trees here if you are able to pull that one up a graph it's a graph bar graph that shows the coverage of of different cities there so there's our yeah so this one you can see Honolulu is the red bar down there at the bottom these basically the the way these studies are done they do the measure the tree canopy using images satellite images with that they're very high tech and sensing and so they're able to look at the canopy and we in 2013 when this study was done we were at 23 percent canopy which is actually not very impressive for a place in the tropics like us we would hope to be 40 to 60 percent canopy and as you can see other cities are much closer to that goal so it is possible we have a goal as an organization to hit 35 percent by 2035 and we hope to you know achieve that goal by really getting all the different actors involved in planting trees the city which is in charge of a huge number of trees working already very hard planting maintaining trees but they could do even more if they had support the state developers nonprofits like the outdoor circle that have been involved for you know 100 years already so we want to bring all these different actors together decision makers you know politicians to focus on this issue overcome some of the barriers there are a lot of barriers it's hard to plant trees when you have existing infrastructure right we're not going into a blank canvas but there are things we can do we can have requirements for new developments when they start and even in existing places with infrastructure it can be done but it takes willpower and focus so we want to bring all these groups together to kind of get on board with a plan and that is what our March 9th conference is about it's open to the public it's open to everyone we'll have panels there representing different groups that are involved arborists landscapers developers policymakers and we want to bring all these perspectives together to think about what the barriers are what the solutions are and how we can move forward so this is just really kind of the beginning of a conversation or maybe we're jumping in halfway into a conversation that's been happening for a hundred years trying to either keep up with the loss of trees and figure out how to plant more and there's a lot of stuff like you said it's not easy to plant trees you think how hard can be just go out in front of your house and plant a tree but this requires a great deal of coordination and logistics and you've got power lines and and pipes and you've also got a public that may not really understand the benefit of trees as well so I think part of the mission of this organization is also education for the public and I think you've you've already done some things with with kids in school so tell me a little bit about that well it is we we find that a lot of people even though they may love trees and love the ideas of trees they may not like the tree that is dropping leaf litter or pods in front of their house yeah or the tree that's blocking their view and there is a lot of requests to cut down trees way more than requests for the city to plant trees which is really unfortunate and the other thing is when the new developments go in often you take an area that had trees mature trees and they get cut down and they are not necessarily replaced there's liability issues there there are a lot of barriers but it can be done the keynote speaker actually for this conference is a man by the name of Ian shares and he is in charge a manager of the urban forestry program in Melbourne Australia which is also a large city with existing infrastructure and they have very successfully taken their program and they say instead of it being a forest in the city it is now a city in a forest which is kind of a beautiful image so yeah and you know it can be done where there's you know a will basically and we in Hawaii we hate to think of ourselves as laggards but we are we are not on the cutting edge here we're actually behind the times which is sad because trees grow so easily here when we do plant them right we have year-round sunlight we have we're not an arid place so we really you know we have one thing that's easier for us than for other places and that is trees grow beautifully okay so I know even like on the street where I live there's there's literally not a tree which is and I live in an old established neighborhood but as we've seen with development people come in they tear down the little house that was there before they're putting in maybe a monster home maybe not but they're completely concreting around the structure which is unbelievable that that is even permitted in our in our city that you don't have to have landscaping here especially with with climate change and the day is getting hotter but so when you're dealing with with this whole educational aspect where do we even begin or is it do kids really get this a lot easier than adults or is it are we how are we having this cognitive dissonance between people loving trees but not in front of my house yeah that is a tough one I think that most people will say they love trees kids love trees we had a poster contest and kids made beautiful artwork it's still up at Honolulu Halle you can go see the posters until the end of this month which is just a couple days away okay but it's also on our website at treesforhonolulu.org you can see the artwork which is fabulous but basically you know kids understand intuitively just I think as you know as human beings that we depend on our environment and we're interested in it um but I think we have to unlearn I'm not sure where the the dislike of tree litter comes from it certainly exists in my house my husband is always raking I don't know if there was a time that maybe in you know in Europe people with grand villas and estates had a staff and part of being wealthy was to have a staff that picked up all you know leaf litter and left you these clean lawns so we associate that with something positive I'm not sure but in some places people view you know the falling fall leaves are a thing of beauty but definitely a natural thing so we need to really just embrace our love of trees and and understand that trees are living beings they just like us will you know shed their leaves and have natural cycles and that it's a privilege and an honor to have trees on our property or in our parks or on our streets yeah let's let's talk about some of the benefits of trees okay so so deeply outweigh the inconvenience that's right because that's what we really need to focus on is why do we need trees beyond just their beauty but before we get to that I did we're gonna have to go to a break here in a minute but I did want to just pull up the graphic of and reinforce for people when this conference is going to take place so its name is Trees for Honolulu's Future and it's growing our urban forest more than a conference the beginning of a movement and I don't know if we have that graphic that you can stick up there for that but it's going to come on Friday March 9th from 8 30 in the morning until about four o'clock in the afternoon so you can go to register at you can see there in the middle click to register www.treesforhonolulu.org and I think the rate there is just going to stay about fifty dollars for for folks yeah it includes lunch and breakfast and an amazing water bottle okay a lot of breakfast amazing water bottle a lot of good information a lot of ways to connect with organizations as well that maybe we can start volunteering with as our time and energy allows as well absolutely or if you don't have time to volunteer there is a real role for the public to pressure our policymakers to make a place for trees okay and help educate them on the values of trees so when we come back I would like to talk about the values of trees and why this is so important because trees bring so many values to us so whether they're you know social psychological environmental I would say spiritual economic as well and so why don't we take a little break here I am talking with Lisa Martin who is a board member of Trees for Honolulu's future this is out and about on think tech live streaming network series and we will be back in just a moment good afternoon my name is Howard wig I am the proud host of cold green a program on think tech away we show at three o'clock in the afternoon every other Monday my guests are specialists both from here and the mainland on energy efficiency which means you do more for less electricity and you're generally safer and more comfortable while you're keeping dollars in your pocket welcome to sister power I'm your host Sharon Thomas Yarbrough where we motivate educate and power and inspire all women we are live here every other Thursday at 4 p.m. and we welcome you to join us here at sister power aloha and thank you I were back and we're live and I'm Winston Welch on out and about and think tech live streaming network series talking with Dr. Lisa Martin who is a board member of trees for Honolulu's future and we are just going to talk about the benefits of trees and why we need them and why they're so important and why this organization exists which we've been talking about is to bring together an entire range of politicians policymakers organizations government officials and more to increase our canopy coverage to 35 percent of our urban environment by 2035 that's our goal to bring it up from 20 to 23 percent right now exactly and actually to reverse it's been declining we've actually been losing canopy a study that was four years after our 2013 canopy found that we had lost about five percent of our trees and that's mostly new developments that had mature trees and the trees were raised for so we actually have to reverse this process so it's not just a matter of gaining more trees it's just catching up to the the destruction of the trees that we've already had just just halting halting the decline yeah yeah well this is a this is a great great opportunity for people to come together and as it says it's the it's more than a conference it's the beginning of a movement your conference is going to be on Friday March 9th at 8 30 till 4 the all the way golf course free breakfast or breakfast included lunch included and a chance to meet with people who are of a like mind or just to find out more about the condition of everything right now they can also find more information at treesforhanalulu.org right and absolutely so we're talking about some of the benefits of trees that we have because people are you know we said there's just a shortage and people might say oh i i i don't want the tree because it causes this or that but they're not really they love trees a they just aren't quite sure why so can you tell us some of the main reasons why we should be planting trees and i think we have some good images on this of why we should be planting trees so okay well so when one great thing about trees is they are nature's cooling system so basically there's two ways that trees cool one is by blocking the sun and so the shade you create had you not created that shade the ground whatever material is on the ground absorbs the sun rays turns it into heat radiation and then bounces that back out the creating a heat island so by having the tree there producing shade you you avoid that heat i don't affect in addition the amazing thing about trees is transpiration which is a natural process where they take water up we're not quite at that slide yet um they where they take water out and they release it through the surface of their leaves there's a chemical reaction involved in that and that takes sunlight energy out of the air and actually cools the air right there so you can find that it's about nine degrees cooler in the shade of a tree than immediately outside it's really quite astounding nine degrees can be the difference between being very comfortable and not being able to be outside which would be a real shame in this beautiful place yeah and not only that not just cool but they provide literal shade so or someone like anybody who doesn't want to get a sunburn right so there's health benefits right and we're going to get to those health benefits okay so we got that they're naturally cool and what else we got here treats provide yeah so homes and food so obviously fruit avocados different types of food that we like enjoy eating and habitat you know so that's not all about people it's also about our creatures so they provide habitat for birds you can see in the image here that's the Manu Akul which is a bird which is nesting in the urban area of Honolulu which is fabulous a native bird and they also provide habitat for you know all kinds of insects so pretty fabulous okay and there's more let's see what else we have coming up and so they protect our coral reefs basically another thing which is associated brings more urgency to it in addition to the heat effect of climate change a big impact of climate change here in Hawaii is we're going to see more intense rainfall in wet places where it's dry it'll get drier and where it's wet it'll get wetter and right now I mean just a couple weeks ago in the last Sunday we had a terrible rainfall which reduced resulted in a lot of flooding in the ocean and a lot of sewage being discharged into the ocean and all that runoff and sedimentation that goes in it covers up our coral reefs which is a real problem having the trees the trees are you know nature's way the leaf canopy absorbs the water it slows it down it trickles down instead of hitting the ground and rushing down it gives the earth time to absorb that water also the tree roots break up the soil creating pathways for the water to get in and finally the roots you know absorb some of that water and as we just spoke about they let it out in transpiration keeping that fresh water which becomes our drinking water when it trickles down to the water table on the land instead of having it all rushed out into the ocean so that's a huge service so it's very much plant a tree save the ocean and they're totally connected right the watershed and the ocean are 100 percent connected and if you got a fruiting tree you're going to have some more fish in the in the in the ocean and you're going to have some nice uh breadfruit or avocados or mangoes or whatever it is you want to grow okay and we got some other benefits of trees that are up here let's see okay trees are good for for business and and economically yeah absolutely so um basically where where there are trees um people shop longer are willing to spend more money right it's just a better place to be um also they increase property values right when you go shopping for a house if a house has nice mature trees you'll pay more for it and it's uh i think even in the exceptional tree program at the alder circle that lists that if you have an exceptional tree on your property you actually get tax some tax breaks as well for having those exceptional trees there so if you have a tree that you think is exceptional for any variety of reasons whether it's size or age or endemic status and and what not you can actually have it listed and get a break on your taxes while keeping the the the area beautiful okay what else do we have up here for trees uh they might yeah so in addition to helping us adapt to climate change by cooling us off and by the way they when they're cooling us off like if there's a tree by a building or a house it reduces your need to use air conditioning which reduces our co2 emissions because you're not using power for that air conditioning but more than that trees are nature's way of storing carbon right and they always have been they take in they sequester carbon while they're doing photosynthesis right one of the three ingredients in photosynthesis is carbon dioxide they take that in and they store it and in addition when they're they break down and things fall you know wood or leaf falls into the soil they put carbon into the soil when that soil is covered up for example in our wetlands it doesn't oxidize uh um oxygen can't get through the layer of water and it stays there so we store an enormous amount of carbon in our forests and in our soil the soil being connected to the forest and so it's a way for us to slow down climate change by releasing you know taking some of that carbon dioxide back and while hawaii i hope um hawaii and the world move to alternative energy even when we do that we will always produce some carbon and we will need our forests to absorb that carbon and keep us neutral so that we uh we quit messing with the climate I quit heating it up even more and maybe have some reversing effects on that and I think anybody who you may doubt if climate change exists but if you've been down to the beach lately or seen sunset beach or any number of beaches around the shore you could just see they're just being eroded like crazy or with the king tides it was coming right over the sidewalk without any waves it was a very calm ocean and it was right at the sidewalks and it's true our tides are getting higher and the place that is really going to be hit the hardest on oahu is waihiki yeah waihiki was a wetland at one point we drained it built the alawai canal to drain it right why is freshwater kiki is natural springs or freshwater springs under waihiki and all of waihiki is at risk and it's not that the sea level will rise and stay above the ground level in waihiki at all the time it's exactly what you said it's the occasional king tide the occasional extreme tide that will come and not only is it a problem for all the buildings and waihiki is our economic engine in this state so that would be a terrible economic disaster but in addition it messes with our sewage system you know all of our pipes and stuff will then get flooded with seawater and back up which causes huge health problems i've read waihiki is essentially going to be like venice we're just going to have to have walls around it and pumps that that are functioning but obviously this is a global problem so we're looking at hawaii becoming maybe a model for the rest of the world that's also maybe some laggards here that says yeah you might be behind but it's okay start where you are with what you've got bring together the the people that need to be brought together and just go from here it doesn't matter okay everything that's in the past is done so your power your point of power is right now yeah no i agree for people that you know i got into this out of concern for climate change so for people that are concerned for climate change and feel helpless these are the things we can do we can reduce our emissions here we can plant trees here you know these are things that we do have control over and what do you think is going to happen over the next five years with this movement what would you be your predictions oh i don't know but it is very exciting i think because there are so many different entities that do have an interest in trees and they have never been brought together before in this way in order to be organized and have their energies kind of create synergy to really have a focus on planting trees and other cities have done it very successfully right we're not on the forefront we have role models that we can look to so we don't need to reinvent the wheel we just need to look at what's already been out there take some great ideas maybe localize them so that they will work here because obviously what works in toronto may not work here just because of the type of vegetation or the political ability to move things in a certain way but having said that you know our our policymakers are fairly environmentally conscious and i think there there is a lot of potential here a big concern that people bring up is money right it costs money to especially when we have existing infrastructure that needs to be changed around and that's one thing point i want to make is that trees the our city trees there have been um studies and each tree more than pays for itself they bring us all kinds of financial benefits like i mentioned in reducing runoff helping us maintain our groundwater and in um increasing real estate values so the the types of benefits the economic benefits it's more like we can't afford not to plant the trees right and we have all those those obvious benefits which are you know carbon uh you know shade economic benefits helps the the reef but fundamentally it's also an aesthetic sense that it's just beautiful to see a lovely canopy of trees walking down the street in shade being able to enjoy going outside in our lovely environment rather than fearing going outside of being burned so we could we have a lot of real reasons to jump on this bandwagon jump on it hard and start with this initiative so the players are starting to come together in a real meaningful way it's the beginning of a movement the beginning of a movement yeah more than a conference so this is coming up again on friday march fifth march ninth i'm sorry march ninth yeah march ninth it's nine yeah of ninth of march which is the second friday i guess in march so only 11 or 12 days from now yeah and that'll be at 8 30 in the morning people want to get go there they can go to treesforhanalulu.org and register yeah okay and is there any other information that you want us to know about the organization or that that that we should um you know focus on um i would say please um check out our website like us on facebook and come to our conference you know this is part of a movement we need participation we need people to be on board to make it happen we need help from everyone so we also have a facebook page too it's probably trees for honolulu yeah okay well i think with uh dedicated passionate um individuals like you intelligent ready to to move this agenda forward the organization is in good hands and the movement is in good hands and so i would invite anybody who's listening today or who has any interest in this to please come to the conference and see what it's all about and to share this with your friends as you're able to either on facebook or by licky to us in another way that you feel connected to it might be just taking your neighbor and saying hey let's go down to this thing and learn more about it so thank you so much for being on the show today my pleasure thank you so we are out of time and it does go by very fast doesn't it a lot faster than you think it will um we're going to have to wrap it up and i am winston welch it's out and about on think tech live streaming network series and it has been our pleasure to talk with dr lisa martin of trees for honolulu's future we certainly appreciated learning a lot more about this wonderful organization for more information on today's topic go to trees for honolulu.org and also check out the conference which is on march 9th at the alawai golf course clubhouse thanks for tuning in we welcome your feedback and thanks to our broadcast engineer ray sangalang our floor manager robert mclean our technical director ian davidson and to jay faradayl our executive producer who puts it all together and i will see you every other monday at three for more of out and about on think tech alawai everyone