{"id":150893,"date":"2026-02-10T23:59:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T23:59:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/150893\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T23:59:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T23:59:11","slug":"tampas-tree-canopy-matches-20-year-low-after-2024-hurricanes-heres-how-it-impacts-your-energy-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/150893\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa\u2019s tree canopy matches 20-year low after 2024 hurricanes: Here’s how it impacts your energy bill"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

TAMPA, Fla. – A post-storm tree canopy analysis conducted by the city of Tampa<\/a>, the University of South Florida<\/a> (USF) and the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF\/IFAS) has quantified the environmental toll of Hurricanes Helene <\/a>and Milton<\/a> on the city\u2019s tree canopy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Students and staff at USF analyzed aerial images from the Hillsborough County<\/a> Property Appraiser\u2019s Office to evaluate pre-storm and post-storm tree canopy, using a “dot-based method.”<\/p>\n

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“Literally, that’s all it is. We’re looking at, is that exact point, is it a tree or is it not a tree?” USF School of Geosciences research associate professor Shawn Landry told FOX 13.\u00a0<\/p>\n

PREVIOUS: Tampa to plant 30,000 trees by 2023 to restore city’s canopy<\/a><\/p>\n

By the numbers:<\/p>\n

The city lost 1,200 acres of tree canopy in 2024, which represents a 4.7% decrease in the existing canopy.<\/p>\n

“So, we kind of went back to where we were in 2021,” Landry added, noting the 2021 tree canopy was “the lowest level in 20 years.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Post-storms, the report found all city council districts saw a reduction in their tree canopy. But South Tampa, Davis Islands, Downtown, and Ybor \u2013 areas that saw some of the highest winds, rainfall, and storm surge–suffered some of the biggest losses.<\/p>\n

READ: Pinellas County uses AI facial recognition to reunite lost pets with families via Petco Love Lost<\/a><\/p>\n

“Other things happened during the year.\u00a0Not everything was because of the storms, but the vast majority of what we lost was because of storms,” Landry added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, after 2021 and prior to the 2024 storms, Tampa\u2019s canopy had been slowly expanding.<\/p>\n

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Landry told FOX 13 this shows rebuilding the canopy is possible. \u00a0<\/p>\n

“If trees make it through the storms, we like to say, they’re survivors, and we really should treat them like they should be winning gold medals. And we should take care of them to keep them,” Landry said. “But there’s no reason why we can’t rebuild the tree canopy. But we must be looking at the right tree in the right place.”<\/p>\n

Why you should care:<\/p>\n

Right tree, right place is one of TECO<\/a>\u2019s mottos.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Planting trees too close to power lines or ground-level transformers creates safety hazards and potential outages during the next storm.<\/p>\n

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But strategically planting them near your home or outdoor air conditioning units can help your wallet.\u00a0<\/p>\n

READ: Indian Rocks Beach heads into second city council meeting over paid beach parking spots<\/a><\/p>\n

“Additional shade on your roof and windows can have an impact on your power bill,” TECO spokesperson Cherie Jacobs said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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“Putting shade near your air conditioning unit can reduce your energy consumption by up to 10%. And if you put trees on the east and west sides of your homes, that can affect the temperature inside your home by 10 degrees,” Jacobs added. “So, all these little things can add up for folks.”<\/p>\n

Jacobs also told FOX 13 the storm recovery fee currently on TECO bills is coming off in September.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Source: Information in this story comes from interviews done by Fox 13’s Ariel Plasencia and the City of Tampa Post-Storm Tree Canopy Analysis.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tampa<\/a>Hurricane Milton<\/a>Hurricane Helene<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. – A post-storm tree canopy analysis conducted by the city of Tampa, the University of South…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":150894,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[47,629,3125,1802,944,115,135,137,136,628,221],"class_list":["post-150893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-fl","tag-hillsborough","tag-hurricane-helene","tag-hurricane-milton","tag-hurricanes","tag-news","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-us","tag-weather"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}