The Need for Trees

Many climate activists reading this column will warn me this subject can be a dangerous distraction. They are correct if my readers think planting trees alone will solve the climate crisis. 

As a bare minimum, society must transition away from primitive fossil fuels to modern clean energy. No one should view tree planting as a single climate fix. This column assumes we can muster the collective will power, in other words the moral courage, to make the switch to clean power. Pursuing this is job #1.   

Additionally, we would be wise to enlist Mother Nature in the fight. Trees are a Nature Based Solution (NBS) as they naturally pull CO2 out the air and lock it up.

World-wide we lose 13 billion trees a year and only regain half of them. This is because trees are often replaced by pasture for cattle or cropland to feed cattle. If you know the carbon math of beef you understand what a disaster it is. I encourage you to switch to a healthier plant-based diet and go light on the dead cow. 

To avert disaster, scientists have calculated we need to plant 1 billion hectares of land in trees.  In a more familiar land unit, this is 247,105,163,015 acres of forest planting. This goal is a pursued world-wide effort.  Some countries are already planting. For example, it is reported one Turkish town proudly planted a record 303,153 trees in an hour while in one day 23 million Ethiopians planted 350 million trees. 

Surveys indicate we, in the USA, could plant 60 billion trees by reforestation, afforestation, restocking understocked federal lands, advantageously planting trees on pasture and agricultural lands, and planting in urban areas.

Unfortunately, trees do not give us a carbon payoff immediately or even quickly. The growth curve of trees varies species to species and in general the curve is sigmoidal. The rate of growth measured by volume is important. Juveniles are slow volume growers. While young trees may be growing up at an astonishingly fast rate, they simply aren’t big enough to pack on the carbon pounds. When they reach adolescence at ten to twenty years their carbon appetite accelerates, and they fill out packing on 40 pounds of carbon a year and continue at this pace for many years sometimes centuries before their growth volume tapers off.

How can we dramatically speed this process? This column will look back in American history for lessons from the past while the next column will look forward to new solutions. 

In the 1930’s, to repair some areas environmentally damaged, and to put young men to work, the Federal Government created the Civilian Conservation Corp. The CCC, often called by its nickname the Tree Army, was the most popular depression era program developed to keep young men employed and money flowing to their families. Many beautiful stands of giant trees we appreciate today were planted in the 1930’s by the CCC. At its height, the CCC employed 300,000 young men. While the Corp had many conservation goals the one it focused on was tree planting. In conjunction with conservation projects the human goals were to improve young men’s physical fitness, improve morale, and increase the employment potential of men. Employers did respond as a person who has demonstrated he or she can put in a tough day’s work is a valuable asset.

Can we do this today? The men of the CCC earned 30 dollars a month.  Thirty-five bucks does not sound like much but in today’s dollars it is $590. OK, that is not much either. But there was another requirement to join the CCC, one we might find infringing on our freedom. Of the 30 dollars a man earned 25 of it had to go to his family back home. Hard physical work, for a small paycheck, with most of his paycheck going home might not sound like a great new deal.  Yet, despite this, or maybe because of our citizen’s sense of joint sacrifice it was the most popular federal program in its day.  

Can we do the physical work to create the new forest lands? There will be a need for manual work and human workers. Do we underestimate our ability to do hard work? Obviously young men and women enter our armed forces every day in less than sterling shape and graduate from boot camp leaner and stronger. The answer is yes, we can. 

One example we might look to is Europe’s current farm labor shortage. Europe’s guest workers cannot enter countries like France and England due to the pandemic.  England and France have put out requests for citizen laborers and, so far, the requests are being met with enthusiasm despite paying only minimum wage.

Is there an example of this sense of sacrifice for country and family today? You do not have to look any further than our medical professionals and other essential workers putting their lives on the line fighting COVID-19. Americans rise to the challenge if we understand the consequences of action. We did it in the 30s, during WWII, today, and we will soon meet the challenge of climate change if we are brave enough to understand the science.

Can we kick our fossil fuel addiction and plant enough trees? Those were some big numbers I threw at you making the goal seem unattainable. But next week I will, as I have in the past, introduce you to leading edge scientists and entrepreneurs whose vision and dedication will change the world for the better making massive tree planting a reality…if we support them with a modern high tech tree army.

* If you would like to get ahead of me search out the Canadian Company, Flash Forest.

Rediscover our proud past in “The Tree Army” by Stan Cohen.