Beauty Is More Than Skin Deep

Did you know that trees can remove air pollution? Find out about the benefits of trees in Arkansas pollution control and learn a variety of ways kids can help our environment.

Benefits of Trees - A Tree Is More Than Just Leaves

• It is estimated that the removal of air pollution by New York City's existing tree cover saves taxpayers as much as $10 million each year. And the City's parks department has planted more than 15,000 trees annually for the past three years.
  
  
• The urban tree canopy in Chicago removes 15 metric tons of carbon monoxide, 84 metric tons of sulfur dioxide, 89 metric tons of nitrogen dioxide, 191 metric tons of ozone and 212 metric tons of particulates annually.
  Source: "Parks as Lungs" by Roddy Scheer
  
  
• In summer, shade trees can save up to 50% of air conditioning costs. In winter, windbreak trees can reduce heating bills as much as 30%.
  
  
• Trees create oxygen, prevent ground runoff, create habitats for wildlife and play a large part in regulating climate change.
  Source: National Arbor Day Foundation
  
  

Teach with Butterflies

A butterfly garden is the perfect outdoor teaching lab, where the learning possibilities are as vast as your and your students' imaginations. In a butterfly garden, students have real-life experiences with nature and the environment and learn about:

• Ecosystems, habitats and biodiversity
• Life cycles and food chains
• Water, water quality and water conservation
• Zoology, botany and biology
• Recycling, composting and litter control
• Pollution
• Conservation and preservation

Designing your schoolyard butterfly garden can provide students a lens for examining the natural history of the area in which they live and how humans have altered it over time. By preserving the environment and creating safe havens for wildlife, students can help to improve the balance of nature as well as the health of our planet.

Making Your Community Beautiful

A variety of programs are available to help make your community beautiful:

• Adopt-A-Highway
• Main Street Arkansas
• Wildflowers Forever
• Liberty Gardens

Additional Resources

• America in Bloom
• American Forests
• Arkansas Urban Forestry Council
• Federation of Garden Clubs
• Keep America Beautiful
• Master Gardeners
• National Arbor Day Foundation
• The Garden Club of America
• Tree City USA

Looking for ways to reduce waste? Learn about littering issues and how to help improve your community through litter prevention, waste reduction and recycling, and beautification.

The Keep Arkansas Beautiful Commission is a division of
the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism.

The Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism is in compliance with
the Freedom of Information, Ar Code Ann., § 25-19-101 et seq.

Keep Arkansas Beautiful does not endorse, promote or guarantee the products or services provided by any commercial entity to which this website links. These links exist solely for reference and as a convenience to our website visitors.