New scoop we just learned over the weekend after meeting one of the people whose been working on this.
Thanks to the amazing work Dewberry has done so far studying sea level rise and storm water issues in Virginia Beach, the Brock Environmental Center being located here and the fact the Shore Drive community is at the top of the list of biggest impacts to VB – a new potential solution will be tested here.
The working group will be looking for property owners who can plant trees in the Phase 3 area to help mitigate storm water. The City will also be planting more trees as well.
There’s been a breakthrough in the science of designing trees to increase Photosynthesis and surprisingly it’s palm trees that have the biggest bang for the buck.
You may remember Photosynthesis is one of the functions of a tree that pulls water from the ground – thereby mitigating the increase risk from sea level rise and storm water increasing due to more storms.
You’ll be seeing a palm tree lined Shore Drive once Phase 3 is complete.
It’s too early to know exactly what they’ll look like at this point but the other benefit to the design is the ease of transplanting them to different variations as they’ll have monitoring equilement on them to test the efficiencies of the trees.
Part of the working groups public comment includes gathering input for what would work best for our area including our climate of course.
Note: I’m excited about the testing of new science here. Just not happy it didn’t turn out to be live oaks that will be studied more.
#WeLoveShoreDrive 
NOOO…not palm trees!! This is not Florida! Do we have any recourse to try to convince them to plant native trees/plants?
I am happy to hear the city will plant more trees along Shore Drive; however, I am very disappointed that Palm Trees are the chosen species. I understand the benefits noted in the article; however, in my opinion, Palm Trees are unattractive and do not fit well with our environment. Furthermore, the Palms I have seen planted over the years in Virginia Beach, typically appear stressed and have few green fronds, if any. I would assume this non-native species may have reduced “anti-flood” properties when stressed (or dead), so, if given a vote, mine would be for higher concentrations of other trees and vegetation instead of the palms. Just my two-cents, which is probably not worth two-cents :)
Missed emails somehow but read it today . :-)
On Mon, Apr 1, 2019 at 4:22 PM Shore Drive Community Coalition wrote:
> Tim posted: “New scoop we just learned over the weekend after meeting one > of the people whose been working on this. Thanks to the amazing work > Dewberry has done so far studying sea level rise and storm water issues in > Virginia Beach, the Brock Environmental Center ” >