This is Earth and Sky on what some people are beginning to call urban forests.

John Wear is director of the Catawba College Center for the Environment in North Carolina. He said urban forests are wooded areas, greenbelts and street trees - all of which provide ecological services to city dwellers.

“We're seeing air quality problems in this region and (in) other regions all over the eastern coast. So, those impacts are effects that we have to take into consideration. And one important aspect of that is our tree canopy, because it is a filtering system for our air. ”

Wear said urban forests remove significant amounts of ozone, nitrogen dioxide, smoke particles, and carbon from the atmosphere. And, he added, that community should consider the value of trees when planning for growth.

“It doesn’t matter whether they're the native species in the ecological preserve, or planted species on the Salisbury greenway system, or street trees in our community. All of them provide ecological services in terms of removal of pollutants, the protection of our water quality, and in many cases, providing habitat for wildlife. ”

We have more about urban forests at . Our thanks today to the National Fish & Wild Life Foundation. We’re Block and Byrd for Earth and Sky.