Healthy Trees, Healthy People

About Healthy Trees, Healthy People

The Health Trees, Healthy People (HtHp) program at Portland State University aims to find canopy designs that most effectively improve the public's health. With generous support from the United States Forest Service (USFS) and several participating organizations, an interdisciplinary research team will collaborate through 2014 to quantify the health benefits of the urban forest and their role in addressing air pollution and urban heat.

Current Urban Forestry programs in many municipalities across the country generally do not consider public health in planting campaigns. One result of the HtHp program is to assist urban forestry programs in considering the public's health through providing an online mapping tool that can be used for identifying locations where partnering cities will see the greatest public health benefit. We anticipate that the mapping tool will be ready by September, 2014.

Our Partnering Cities

News and Updates

Hthp was featured on Public Radio International’s weekly news journal on the environment, "Living on Earth". Read the article “Climate and the Health Risks of Urban Heat Islands”
The Healthy Trees, Healthy People team has been invited to present their research findings at the Urban Environmental Pollution conference in Beijing, China...more

Our very own Vivek Shandas and Meenakshi Rao were featured on Oregon Public Broadcasting's "EarthFix". Read or listen to "Hotter Summers Mean More Health Risks In Urban Heat Islands"

To learn more about the Urban Forest and its relationship to human health, visit the USDA's Youtube channel!