That article reminds me of a story in the book, Wildflowers Across
America, by former first lady, Lady Bird Johnson who has long
championed roadside plantings of wildflowers. A car ran off the road
and was gently deaccelerated by the wildflower planting so that a more
serious accident was avoided.
http://www.wildflower.org/
An underreported example of official recognition of the value of trees
is the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize. It was awarded to a Kenyan woman,
Wangari Maathai, in large part for her Green Belt Movement that has
resulted in the planting of 30 million trees.
http://nobelprize.org/peace/laureates/2004/press.html
David R. Hershey
