Why Trees?

Trees on the Woonasquatucket River near Mowry Commons, Smithfield, RI

You've been breathing oxygen today.  That's nothing new, you breathe oxygen every day.  You have also been using electricity, and perhaps even driving a car, leaving behind puffs of carbon dioxide.  You may have eaten an apple, an orange or a banana.  You printed out a document at work and you, no doubt, sat on something at least partly made of wood.  Your house may be made of wood, as is your kitchen cutting board, your bookcases, your flooring and that picture frame on your bureau.  Right now you probably have a half-drunk cup of tea or coffee within arm's reach -- each of those is the product of a bush.

Without trees, none of these things would be possible.  We tend to forget how much we rely on these beautiful, dendritic lives that exist all around us, quietly, humbly making things happen.

When I was a child, I would climb to the top of a great white pine that once towered over our Cape Cod cottage.  It has since been replaced by three smaller pear trees, a row of lilacs, and an adolescent maple, none of which is strong enough to climb.  I am sorry that my son will never see the Hen Cove from that makeshift crow's nest, so high above the surrounding rooftops.

I love to split wood.  A wood fire is a blessing.  And pruning trees can be great meditation. 

We owe so much to trees, yet many people have a NIMBY kind of approach to them.  Trees drop inconvenient leaves all over our nice green grass.  Their roots turn a flat lawn into a lumpy mess.  They attract wildlife, which can be inconvenient for those prefer a more sterile existence. 

Have you ever wondered just how many trees it takes to offset the carbon from your car's emissions?
According to Carbonify.com's handy carbon calculator, a car that gets 40 miles to the gallon requires about 18 mature trees to offset about 12,000 miles of  yearly driving.  According to this New York Times article, one acre of mature deciduous forest offsets the carbon produced by driving 2.7 average cars for one year.  And that's just driving.  You also heat your home, eat tree fruit, use paper towels, and do many other things that require trees.  How many cars does your family own?  And how many acres of trees?

It is these complex equations that brought me to the conclusion that reforestation must be a global priority.  We, as human beings, desperately need to reforest the many millions of deforested miles that should be producing oxygen, sequestering carbon, and producing the food and timber for the next generation.  Along with local plantings, this is work that we can responsibly outsource.  People around the world need jobs.  Many of them live in the areas that have practiced aggressive deforestation.  They can improve their own lives and support themselves doing this work, if we are willing to fund it.

So what can you do?  How can you support the planting of trees?  There are lots of ways to help.  As I have often mentioned on this blog, The Eden Reforestation Projects does a fabulous job turning your donations into trees and jobs.  My own company, Plant22.com will, as of 2015, be offering American made products, the sale of which will support The Eden Projects.

If you live in a city, you can work with local tree-planting groups to help reforest vacant lots and sidewalk spaces.  If you live in the country, you can grow your own trees. And fruit trees make great gifts, especially if given in complementary, cross-pollinating pairs.  You can also advocate for more forested parks with walking trails, and sensible development policies that preserve forest and minimize large, grassy lawns.  Lawns might look nice but they require up to 3x the amount of carbon, because of mowing and watering, than they sequester in the earth.  Compare that to a garden or a forest and you can see why planting trees, bushes and perennial gardens is a much healthier proposition.  Planting your yard with wildflowers, instead of grass, is another sensible option.

If we, as a species, would like to carry on healthfully into the coming centuries, our current attitudes toward trees must change.  This kind of change starts at home.  Trees are an amazing investment.  How else can you turn an hour of your time into a thousand pounds of eventual product?  For pennies today, you can create real value tomorrow. 

Isn't it time we all got started?