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Keep Planting

By John Rainey

ith coming up this spring, biggest absorbers of the gas, possibly as soon as the next you may want to consider planting decade, because of the damage caused by fires, loggers W and farming interests in Brazil, and the impacts of our a few more trees than usual. The planet warming climate. needs them! If that happens, climate breakdown is likely to become

A new study1 finds that the in the heart of Africa even more severe in its effects, and the world will have to and across the Amazon will stop absorbing carbon dioxide quickly reduce carbon-producing activities to counteract emissions as a whole in as little as 15 years, forcing scien- the loss of the carbon sinks. “We’ve found that one of tists and politicians to rethink their strategies on combating the most worrying impacts of has already the global climate crisis. begun,” said Simon Lewis, professor in the school of geog- raphy❝ at Leeds University, one of the senior authors of the Tropical Forests Reaching CO2 Saturation study. “This is decades ahead of even the most pessimistic climate models.” The study (Asynchronous carbon sink saturation in African and Amazonian Global tropical ) published this month in Nature, describes how CO2 absorption in The best time According to another study, an area the tropical forest has already plunged. to plant a of forest the size of the United King- dom is being lost every year around Tropical forests are taking up less carbon was 20 years ago. the world – the vast majority of it dioxide from the air, reducing their abil- The second-best from tropical rainforests – with dire ity to act as “carbon sinks” and possibly time is now. effects on the climate emergency and accelerating climate breakdown. The Am- wildlife.2 azon could turn into a source of carbon — Chinese Proverb in the atmosphere, instead of one of the The rate of loss has reached 26 million

From the — Winter, 2020 Email: [email protected]

© 2020 GreenPlay LLC. All rights reserved. hectares a year, a report has found, having grown rapidly in in subtropical, temperate, boreal, and polar regions.3 the past five years despite pledges made by governments around the world in 2014 to reverse deforestation and “Despite ongoing deforestation, fires, drought-induced die- restore trees. offs, and insect outbreaks, the world’s tree cover actually increased by 2.24 million square kilometers—an area the Charlotte Streck, a co-founder and the director of Climate size of Texas and Alaska combined—over the past 35 years,” Focus, the think tank behind the report, said: “We need finds a paper published in the journal Nature. But the to keep our trees and we need to restore our forests. research also confirms large-scale loss of the planet’s most Deforestation has accelerated, despite the pledges that biodiverse , especially tropical forests. have been made.” Are There More Trees Than 35 Years Ago? The New York declaration on forests was signed at the UN in 2014, requiring countries to cut in half the amount of As reported in an article in Pacific Standard magazine, deforestation and restore 150m hectares of deforested or “the study, led by Xiao-Peng Song and Matthew Hansen degraded forest land by 2020. But, instead of going down, of the University of Maryland, is based on analysis of the rate of tree cover loss has gone up by 43% since the satellite data from 1982 to 2016. The researchers broke declaration was adopted, while the most valuable and land cover into three categories: tall vegetation consisting irreplaceable tropical primary forests have been cut down of trees of at least 16 feet in height; short vegetation at a rate of 4.3m hectares a year. under 16 feet in height including shrubs, grass, and agricultural crops; and “bare ground,” including urban The ultimate goal of the declaration, to halt deforestation areas, sand, tundra, and rock. While the classification by 2030 – potentially saving as much carbon as taking all may seem simplistic, powerful conclusions can be drawn the world’s cars off the roads – now looks further away from the data, including assessing agricultural expansion, than ever. climate-driven expansion and contraction of ecosystems, and forest clearing and recovery.” Some climate scientists use another method of measuring tree cover that leads them to believe that the planet now “The results of this study reflect a human-dominated Earth has more trees than it did 35 years ago. In a study reported system,” the researchers write. “Direct human action on in Pacific Standard magazine, the authors contend that tree landscapes is found over large areas on every continent, cover loss in the tropics was outweighed by tree cover gain from intensification and extensification of agriculture to

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2 increases in and urban land uses, with implications Even as this study contends that the Earth may presently for the maintenance of services.” have more trees than 35 years ago, it also confirms that “some of its most productive and biodiverse biomes – Overall, the study found that tree cover loss in the especially tropical forests and savannas – are significantly tropics was outweighed by tree cover gain in subtropical, more damaged and degraded, reducing their resilience and temperate, boreal, and polar regions. Tree cover gain capacity to afford ecosystem services.” is being driven by agricultural abandonment in parts of Europe, Asia, and North America; warming temperatures Time is Running Out that are enabling forests to move toward the poles; and China’s massive program. Tree cover is also Dozens of international organizations and climate scientists increasing globally in montane ecosystems. have sounded alarms like the following: “Each year for the last decade, the UN Environment Programme’s (UNEP) The biggest gains in tree cover occurred in temperate Emissions Gap Report has compared where greenhouse continental forest, boreal coniferous forest, subtropical gas emissions are headed, against where they should be humid forest. Russia, China, and the United States to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. Each year, experienced the largest increase in tree cover among the report has found that the world is not doing enough. countries during the period of study. Emissions have only risen, hitting a new high of 55.3 gigatonnes of CO2 equivalent in 2018. The UNEP Emissions The study estimates “gross tree canopy loss globally at 1.33 Gap Report 2019 finds that even if all unconditional million square kilometers, or 4.2 percent of 1982 tree cover. Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the But adding in gains, the planet’s total area of tree cover Paris Agreement are implemented, we are still on course increased by 2.24 million square kilometers, or 7.1 percent, for a 3.2°C temperature rise.”7 from 31 million to 33 million square kilometers”. The authors note these numbers “contradict” data from the United Nations A Warming Climate Is Stressing Our Trees. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which collects national forest data and has historically been seen as the most A quiet crisis is playing out in many U.S. forests as a growing consistent source of information on forest cover: “A global net number of trees are at risk of succumbing to drought, disease, gain in tree canopy contradicts current understanding of long- insects and – much of it driven by climate change. term forest area change; the FAO reported a net forest loss between 1990 and 2015. However, our gross tree canopy loss Forestry officials and scientists are increasingly alarmed estimate … agrees in magnitude with the FAO’s estimate of and say the essential role of trees – providing clean water, net forest area change, despite differences in the time period locking up carbon and sheltering whole ecosystems – is covered and definition of forest.” being undermined on a grand scale.

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3 California and mountain states have suffered particularly Other threats to our trees. big die-offs in recent years, with over 66 million trees killed in the Sierra Nevada alone since 2010, according to the In addition to trees naturally declining due to old age, our Forestry Service. trees are increasingly under threat from extreme weather events such as drought, dramatic temperature fluctuations, In northern California, an invasive pathogen called Sudden heavy snows and high winds. In November 2014, a 48-hour, Oak Death is infecting hundreds of different plants, from 70-degree temperature drop caused the death of over redwoods and ferns to backyard oaks and bay laurels. 500 of Boulder’s mature trees. Many trees today are still The disease is related to the blight that caused the Irish showing varying states of decline and stress as a result of potato famine. “We’re talking millions of trees killed, whole the 2014 freeze. mountain sides dying,” said Dr David Rizzo, of the University of California, Davis. As climate destabilization and movement of invasive

Nearly a decade of drought in the west has not only starved organisms continue, many urban trees face additional trees of water but weakened their defenses and created stress and insect and disease threats, such as drippy blight conditions for “insect eruptions” across the U.S., says Diana of red oaks, thousand cankers disease of walnut, pine wilt Six, an entomologist at the University of Montana. “Bark nematode of pine trees, Douglas-fir tussock moth, and beetles and mountain pine beetles, usually held in check mountain pine beetle. by wet winters, now have more time to breed and roam. The latter have already expanded their range from British In many communities across the U.S., land development Columbia across the Rockies, to the Yukon border and and redevelopment also threatens the urban canopy, eastward, into jack pine forests that have never seen the especially when sites include high-quality mature trees. bug. The outbreak is something like 10 times bigger than As vacant lots are developed, existing homes rebuilt and normal, I would argue a lot more than that,” Six said. streets and floodways widened, mature trees are often removed, or their health impacted by construction. The City of Boulder, Colorado is estimated to lose more than 70,000 ash trees to emerald ash borer (EAB) alone The time to act is now. over the next 10 years. EAB, an invasive insect from Asia, is attacking our ash trees and will destroy more than 25 As parks and recreation professionals, there are lots of percent of the city’s current urban tree canopy by 2030. things we can do to help mitigate these problems. This EAB is considered a slow-moving natural disaster. It has includes making our parks more climate resilient. CLIMATE already destroyed hundreds of millions of ash trees in more RESILIENT PARKS is an initiative of the National Recreation than 30 states across the U.S.5 and Parks Association (NRPA). “Parks are key community stakeholders when it comes to addressing the effects of climate change. From protecting water resources via green infrastructure practices, to reducing urban heat island effect through city wide - parks play a

From the — Winter, 2020 Email: [email protected]

4 critical role in ensuring that our communities successfully Crowther emphasized that it remains vital to reverse the adapt and thrive in light of a rapidly changing planet.”4 current trends of rising from burning and forest destruction and bring them Research shows a trillion trees could be planted down to zero. He said this is needed to stop the climate to capture huge amount of carbon dioxide crisis becoming even worse and because the forest restoration envisaged would take 50-100 years to have its Planting billions of trees across the world is one of the full effect of removing 200 billon tons of carbon. biggest and cheapest ways of taking CO2 out of the atmosphere to tackle the climate crisis, according to And tree planting is “a climate change solution that doesn’t scientists, who have made the first calculation of how require President Trump to immediately start believing in many more trees could be planted without encroaching climate change, or scientists to come up with technological on crop land or urban areas. 8 solutions to draw carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere”, Crowther said. “It is available As trees grow, they absorb now, it is the cheapest one and store the carbon possible and every one of us dioxide emissions that can get involved.” are driving global heating. New research is suggesting Plant a Million – a Billion – that a worldwide planting a Trillion Trees. program could result in the removal of two-thirds of all Since 2006, The Million Tree the emissions from human Initiative refers to ongoing activities that remain in the environmental projects atmosphere today, a figure that multiple cities have the scientists describe as individually committed to, “mind-blowing”. aimed at increasing the urban forest through the The analysis found there planting of one million are 1.7 billion hectares of trees. Cities that are known treeless land on which 1.2 to be currently involved trillion native tree saplings would naturally grow. That area in this initiative are: Los Angeles, Denver, New York City, is about 11% of all land and equivalent to the size of the Shanghai, London, Ontario, and Amherst, New York. A US and China combined. Tropical areas could have 100% common motive shared between these participating cities tree cover, while others would be more sparsely covered, is, according to their mission statements, the reduction meaning that on average about half the area would be of carbon dioxide in the air to reduce the effects of global under tree canopy. warming. 9

The scientists specifically excluded all fields used to grow The Nature Conservancy’s Plant a Billion Trees campaign crops and urban areas from their analysis. But they did is a major forest restoration effort with a goal of planting include grazing land, on which the researchers say a few a billion trees across the planet. “Trees provide so many trees can also benefit sheep and cattle. benefits to our everyday lives. They filter clean air, provide fresh drinking water, help curb climate change, and create “This new quantitative evaluation shows [forest] homes for thousands of species of plants and animals. restoration isn’t just one of our climate change Planting a Billion Trees can help save the Earth from solutions, it is overwhelmingly the top one,” said Prof deforestation. It’s a big number, but we know we can do it

Tom Crowther at the Swiss university ETH Zürich, who with your help.”10 led the research. “What blows my mind is the scale. I thought restoration would be in the top 10, but it is The Trillion Tree Campaign is a campaign of Plant-for- overwhelmingly more powerful than all of the other the-Planet with the aim to plant a trillion trees. It is a climate change solutions proposed.” development and continuation of the activities of the

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5 earlier Billion Tree Campaign. Their vision is “One trillion 3. The Planet Now Has More Trees Than It Did 35 Years trees re-grown, saved from loss and better protected Ago. Pacific Standard Magazine, Aug. 17, 2018, By Rhett around the world by 2050.”11 This idea was embraced A. Butler. https://psmag.com/environment/the-planet- this January at the in Davos, now-has-more-trees-than-it-did-35-years-ago Switzerland, when they endorse 1t.ORG as an initiative designed to support the UN Decade on Ecosystem 4. Park and Recreation Sustainability Practices – A

Restoration 2021-2030, led by UNEP and FAO.12 summary of results from an NRPA Member Survey. According to their website, “1t.ORG exists to connect, https://www.nrpa.org/our-work/Three-Pillars/ empower and mobilize a global community conservation/climate-resilient-parks/ of millions, unleashing their potential to act at an unprecedented scale and speed, to ensure the conservation 5. City of Boulder, CO Forestry Department. https:// and restoration of one trillion trees within this decade.” bouldercolorado.gov/forestry/tree-crisis-2 Even U.S. President, , has pledged support for this initiative. 6. An American tragedy: why are millions of trees dying across the country? The Guardian, Mon 19 Sep 2016. By GreenPlay, LLC, has extensive experience with helping Oliver Milman in Oahu and Alan Yuhas in San Francisco. communities with plan conservation and stewardship programs. For more information, contact Teresa Penbrooke, 7. UN Environment Programme, Emissions Gap Report. PhD, MAOM, CPRE at [email protected]. Nov. 26, 2019. https://www.unenvironment.org/ resources/emissions-gap-report-2019 References: 8. Tree planting ‘has mind-blowing potential’ to tackle 1. Asynchronous carbon sink saturation in African and climate crisis. The Guardian, July 4, 2019; Modified Amazonian tropical forest, Nature, Mar. 4, 2020, 80- on Dec. 16, 2019. By Damian Carrington, Environment 87 (2020) Wannes Hubau, Simon L. Lewis, […] Lise Editor Zemagho. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586- 020-2035-0 9. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Million_Tree_ Initiative 2. World losing area of forest the size of the UK each year, report finds. The Guardian, Sept. 12, 2019. 10. The Nature Conservancy. https://www.nature.org/en- Fiona Harvey, Environment Correspondent. https:// us/get-involved/how-to-help/plant-a-billion/ www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/sep/12/ deforestation-world-losing-area-forest-size-of-uk-each- 11. Trillion Trees. http://www.trilliontrees.org/home year-report-finds 12. 1t.ORG. https://www.1t.org

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