Let me explain exactly why every new subdivision in America looks like the top photo, because the math is wild.
A mature tree increases a home's value by 7 to 19 percent. On a $400,000 house, that's $28,000 to $76,000. A single shade tree produces the cooling equivalent of ten room-size air conditioners running 20 hours a day. One tree on the west side of a house cuts energy bills by 12 percent within 15 years. The bottom photo is worth more, costs less to live in, and sells faster. This has been documented by the University of Washington, Clemson, Michigan State, and the USDA. The data is not in dispute.
Removing those trees saves the builder roughly $5,000 per lot. Concrete trucks need twice the dripline radius of every standing tree. Utility trenches need flat ground. A bulldozer flattens 200 lots in an afternoon. Preserving trees adds weeks and thousands per home.
So the developer pockets $5,000 in savings and the buyer eats $50,000 in lost value for the next two decades. The person making the decision and the person paying for it have never been in the same room.
The Woodlands, Texas is the proof of what happens when they are. George Mitchell bought 28,000 acres of Houston timberland in 1974 and preserved 28% as permanent green space. He forced McDonald's to build behind the tree canopy. That McDonald's became one of the highest-volume locations in Texas. The first office building, designed to reflect the surrounding forest so you couldn't see it from the street, leased completely.
The Woodlands median home price today: $615,000. Katy, a comparable Houston suburb that clear-cut: $375,000. Named #1 community to live in America two years running.
Fifty years of data. The trees are worth more than removing them saves. Developers clear-cut anyway because they sell the house once and leave. You live in it for 30 years.
Skyler Gill-Howard is one of the players that learned under @NIUCoachHammock before transferring to Texas Tech.
We asked him about his former coach on Tuesday.
Best defensive lineman in the area.
Senior captain.
3.9 GPA
Is there anything @jarrontaylor9 can't do?
The @BishopLuersFB senior is No. 2 in our First Eleven.
https://t.co/zqFIPYCp8T
I work at a doggy daycare, and we have a heated saltwater pool just for dogs. They get to swim twice a week, plus therapy sessions for older pups and those recovering from surgery...
New randomized, controlled trial of students using GPT-4 as a tutor in Nigeria. 6 weeks of after-school AI tutoring = 2 years of typical learning gains, outperforming 80% of other educational interventions.
And it helped all students, especially girls who were initially behind
Alabama just lost to a Michigan team that was missing…
Will Johnson (All American)
Mason Graham (All American)
Kenneth Grant (All American)
Colston Loveland (Possible FRP)
RB1 & RB2 (Kalel Mullings & Donovan Edwards)
Josiah Stewart (Star EDGE)
QB1 got injured mid game