Big Trees May Make Communities Safer: Study

treehugger.com:

According to a report from Science Daily, the study conducted by researchers from the U.S. Forest Service revealed that some urban trees may actually reduce incidences of property crimes and acts of violence. The findings are the result of an unprecedented look into the relationship between trees and crime -- using neighborhoods in the city of Portland, Oregon as a case sample.

Read the whole story: treehugger.com

Comments

[Yogesh Cu]

07:43 AM on 11/09/2010

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[LeftLeanWing]

09:31 AM on 11/05/2010

This Study is Absurd from it's very Concept.....

Areas with more Trees tend to be less densely populated or further from a Metropolitan Center.

Less crime is due to other factors like proximity to poverty, inter-neighborhood transience etc...

This is as bad as another survey featured on here that show the most dangerous neighborhoods in America... It featured a neighborhood in DC that I frequent often... that gentrified from a high crime area to a very desirable and expensive neighborhood almost a decade ago. Where most if not all of the low-income projects and housing was replaced by new Government Buildings and a expanded Marine Base.... I thought that was absurd... However... I can remember when it was dangerous... but even then it was Hardly the most dangerous neighborhood in the District.

[Mondayboy]

03:18 PM on 11/03/2010

If I take NY's central park as an example, I will say that big trees increase crime. The big trees obstruct sight and is a good hiding place for criminals. Keep criminals and paper companies away from big trees.

[Forester]

08:40 PM on 11/02/2010

Can anyone guess where big trees come from? That's right! Little trees.

There is enough junk science out there already from the right, don't you think?

[econ1]

04:39 PM on 11/02/2010

They sure do if they land on a criminal.

[rjmtx]

04:06 PM on 11/02/2010

Correlation does not necessarily equal causation. I'm not going to delve into this idea again...

[elcerritan]

05:08 PM on 11/02/2010

Bingo. This is an unbelievably asinine article.

But why am I not surprised? HuffPost is Pseudo-Science Central as far as I can tell. After all, they actually have people like T. Colin Campbell, author of the "The China Study," which is the biggest pseudo-scientific pile of "nutrition" cr @ p I've ever seen, blogging and writing featured column's on the site.

[rjmtx]

09:36 PM on 11/02/2010

This isn't the first time I've seen stuff like this on the site either. I just hope people do't fall for it. I will accept that big trees are better at stopping bullets, though. That's a proven fact.

[SurrealPumpkin]

02:51 PM on 11/02/2010

How did they control for larger trees tending to be in older and stabler communities.

Is this a reliable finding or is it on the lines "Increased Ice Cream consumption increase Roller Coaster riding"?

[Reyeshawk13]

12:06 AM on 11/03/2010

That's actually part of the point of the study. Big trees are a sign of an older, stable community with residents who take care of things. They may be still confusing correlation with causation, but they do make that point in the article.

[SusanElizabeth1949]

10:46 AM on 11/04/2010

As far as I could see the article was just another example of 'shark jumping'.