Trees for forests for climate? It's all in the details

There's a new report / analysis making the rounds. It's in The Guardian under this head:

Tree planting 'has mind-blowing potential' to tackle climate crisis

Research shows a trillion trees could be planted to capture huge amount of carbon dioxide

Let's start this response by saying we're very much in favor of trees. Even more so since we finished reading The Hidden Life of Trees, About Trees, The Overstory, and a few similar books during the past couple of years. The property where we live on has a number of trees, both evergreen and deciduous. We enjoy the shade, the birds, the windsong. We'd like it more if there were enough large maples to support sugaring in March but.... Anyhow, over the years, we've tried planting a number of trees on the property, mostly fruit trees, both apple and pear. Of the dozen or so trees we've planted over the years, only three remain: one apple, one pear, one red maple. Most of the others were lost to pocket gophers eating the roots.

deer seem to be very fond of black chokeberry bushes

Photo by J. Harrington

We haven't had much better luck with bushes / shrubbery. The deer keep nibbling on the black chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa) we planted around the dog run and the rose bushes and flowers in the front gardens. What the deer don't eat from above, the rabbits gnaw on down below. I have no clue how the property ended up with oaks and pines and black cherries and maples. It would be wonderful if deer or rabbits or even pocket gophers ate buckthorn. No such luck.

The point we're wandering up toward is that, based on our experience, there seems to be a moderately high loss in tree re-plantings. That would seem to be consistent with nature's profligate distribution of seeds from existing trees in the wood lot or forest. There's a report on China's tree replanting program  of a billion trees per year that indicates a number of other issues complicate major reforestation programs, let alone engaging in restorative forestry.

this is a "deer-proof" enclosure in a Scientific and Natural Area

Photo by J. Harrington

Not terribly far from where we live is one of Minnesota's Scientific and Natural Areas. The first time we visited, we were taken aback to discover a large area surrounded by a very tall fence with multitudes of tree saplings in protective coverings planted within the fence. Being the inquisitive sort we are, we tracked down those who could tell us what was going on. It's a "deer-proof" fence to enable reforestation of an area that had been turned into a meadow.

We're not sure what kinds of issues were encountered by the green belt planter who won a Nobel Prize but then we haven't yet read the story of Wangari Maathai: The Woman Who Planted Millions of Trees. We do know that DrawDown, our "bible" for all things related to climate breakdown, ranks temperate forest restoration at #12 and afforestation at #15 in their list of solutions. Seems like we might want to be sure to find whatever ways are needed to bring back our forests and our trees. We just have to keep in mind that carbon capture and wood and fruit are not the only uses of trees and we aren't the only users.

Speaking Tree 

Joy Harjo- 1951-

I had a beautiful dream I was dancing with a tree.
                                                                   —Sandra Cisneros

Some things on this earth are unspeakable:
Genealogy of the broken—
A shy wind threading leaves after a massacre,
Or the smell of coffee and no one there—

Some humans say trees are not sentient beings,
But they do not understand poetry—

Nor can they hear the singing of trees when they are fed by
Wind, or water music—
Or hear their cries of anguish when they are broken and bereft—

Now I am a woman longing to be a tree, planted in a moist, dark earth
Between sunrise and sunset—

I cannot walk through all realms—
I carry a yearning I cannot bear alone in the dark—

What shall I do with all this heartache?
The deepest-rooted dream of a tree is to walk
Even just a little ways, from the place next to the doorway—
To the edge of the river of life, and drink—

I have heard trees talking, long after the sun has gone down:

Imagine what would it be like to dance close together
In this land of water and knowledge. . .

To drink deep what is undrinkable.

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