Healthy Forests = Healthy Communities!

This year's theme is "Healthy Forests = Healthy Communities". Trees benefit each and every person. They provide us food, drink, building materials, and so much more.

• Trees help clean our air.
  
  • Trees remove pollution from the atmosphere, improving air quality and human health. (U.S. Forest Service, 2013); In Los Angeles, trees remove nearly 2,000 tons of air pollution each year. (U.S. Forest Service, 2011) ; In Chicago, trees remove more than 18,000 tons of air pollution each year.
    (U.S. Forest Service, 2013); In Greater Kansas City, trees remove 26,000 tons of air pollution each year. (U.S. Forest Service, 2013). 
  • Roadside trees reduce nearby indoor air pollution by more than 50%.
• Trees help reduce crime. 
  • In Baltimore, a 10% increase in tree canopy corresponded to a 12% decrease in crime. 
  • The University of Vermont and U.S. Forest Service, 2012
    Among minor crimes, there is less graffiti, vandalism, and littering in outdoor spaces with trees as a part of the natural landscape than in comparable plant-less spaces.
• Trees provide much-needed cooling. 
  • Trees lower surface and air temperatures by providing shade. Shaded surfaces may be 20–45°F cooler than the peak temperatures of unshaded materials. 
  • Trees cool the city by up to 10°F by shading our homes and streets and releasing water vapor into the air through their leaves.
• Trees absorb carbon dioxide (CO2), removing and storing the carbon while releasing the oxygen back into the air. 
  • In one year, an acre of mature trees absorbs the amount of CO2 produced by a car driven 26,000 miles.
• Trees help us save energy
  • Carefully positioned trees can reduce a household’s energy consumption for heating and cooling by up to 25%. Computer models devised by the U.S. Department of Energy predict that the proper placement of only three trees can save an average household between $100 and $250 in energy costs annually.
• Trees contribute to our health.
  • A study of 10 cities found community forests save an average of one life each year. In New York City, trees save an average of eight lives every year.
• Trees are a good investment of our public dollars
  • A cost-benefit analysis of the Berkeley, California, tree canopy indicated that each camphor tree had an annual net benefit to the city and its residents of nearly $12,500, each Shamel ash showed a $9,600 annual net benefit, and each London planetree had an annual net benefit of more than $8,700 per trees

_{The source can be found at https://www.arborday.org/trees/treefacts/} 

Contest Information

Find all the resources and information you need on this year's contest sponsored by the North Platte Natural Resources District.

• Contest Information - Detailed Information
• Download Contest Registration Form  - Forms must accompany every entry
• Additional Resources for both students and teachers
• Some cool Curriculum to do while coving the topic of soils! Please use!
• Please attach the entry form to the back of the poster!

The deadline to enter is November 8, 2021!

Contest Rules

1. Open to all Elementary students in Banner, Garden, Morrill, Scotts Bluff, and southern Sioux Counties. Age categories are:
   • K-1
   • 2-3
   • 4-6
   • 7-9
   • 10-12
2. Any media may be used to create a flat or two-dimensional effect (paint, crayon, colored pencil, charcoal, paper or other materials).
3. The poster size must be between 8.5 x 11. The size of a typical sheet of printer paper. 
4. All posters must have the student’s full name, age, grade, and school attached to the back of the poster, on the entry form. 
5. All posters must be created by an individual student rather than a team of students.
6. Although younger students will most likely receive help in planning from parents or teachers, we encourage each student to do as much of the work as possible by him/herself.
7. First-place winners in each age division will receive a prize and media recognition.
8. Entries can be mailed in a large manila envelope to North Platte NRD, Poster Contest, P.O. Box 280, Scottsbluff, NE 69363 or dropped off at our office at 100547 Airport Road, Scottsbluff.
9. Prizes will be given to first, second, and third places for each division.

Poster Evaluations

The posters will be evaluated on the following criteria:

• Conservation message
• Neatness
• Visual effectiveness
• Originality
• Universal appeal

More Information

For more information, contact Amanda Shepperd at the NPNRD at 308-632-2749 or email her at  

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