Seeing the woods and the trees
By: Chris King
Tags: Environment, Climate Change, Activism, Nature, Politics

Seeing the woods and the trees

For tree planting to have the necessary impact on mitigating climate change we must also preserve the trees that already populate our woods and line our streets. Chris King Dec 22, 2020·3 min read

Trees for Cities volunteers planting 5,000 trees in East London — Image: © Chris King

One of my favourite smells is that of a forest after rainfall — that distinctive blend of freshness and rejuvenation mixed with decay and decomposition. Walking through Queen’s Wood after Storm Ciara, I savour that very smell and the period of calm that follows any weather event that merits a name.

As I make my way past the Shepherd’s Hill allotments, slipping and sliding up the boggy hill on my way to the cafe, I can’t help noticing the number of trees that have fallen. Beautiful old relics that — until being unceremoniously uprooted — had collectively borne witness to many decades of walkers, joggers and dogs of all shapes and sizes.

Just a week earlier I had been helping plant 5,000 trees in neighbouring Hackney with over 500 other volunteers, supporting the amazing Trees for Cities — a charity working at both national and international levels to improve lives (as the name suggests) by planting trees in cities. It got me thinking about the possibility of all that work being cancelled out by a single storm. Storm Dennis, of course, arrived a week later, exacting even more damage and compounding the situation.

However, one is not equivalent to the other. Mature trees are capable of absorbing far more carbon dioxide than saplings, having many more leaves through which to absorb it and a far greater root network by which to sequester the carbon into the soil. They also have far more carbon embedded in their trunks and in those roots. Witnessing all the casualties of recent storms is therefore all the more concerning.

So, when the likes of Donald Trump declare participation in the Trillion Trees Initiative or President Erdoğan of Turkey actually oversees the planting of 11 million trees in just a few hours — as was the case on 11 November 2019 when the country celebrated National Forestation Day — these impressive numbers may seem like progress and make us feel hopeful. However, it’s only once we include the deaths that have also occurred — for whatever reason — do we gain a clear picture of the net impact of the world’s tree population on CO2 levels.

An assessment of the trees planted on National Forestation Day in Turkey — conducted only a few months afterwards — revealed that up to 90% of the trees had died. Combine this with the fact that worldwide — every year — an area the size of the UK is deforested purely for commercial gain with no regard given to the impact on biodiversity, soil health or the water cycle, let alone climate change — and it’s all too easy for any actual progress to be negated. This doesn’t take into account the recent fires in the Amazon or Australia which will have taken things to a whole new level.

Closer to home in Haringey, in the 12 months leading up to March 2019, 267 street trees were cut down while only 97 were planted — a trend that has been ongoing since 2016. In that same 12-month period 57 trees were removed from parks — and only 3 were planted.

Tree planting is seen as one of the most effective and viable methods of mitigating the impacts of climate change — but for a newly planted tree to have any impact on climate change it must survive to maturity. As Greta Thunberg pointed out in her speech at Davos during the World Economic Forum, planting trees — often carried out under the guise of ‘offsetting’ is simply not enough. It must go hand in hand with the protection of existing woods, forests and street trees the world over together with a reduction in emissions — both of which require a reduction in our consumption of goods.

We may not be able to hold Trump and Erdoğan to account or ensure their tree-planting endeavours prove more than just PR stunts but through considered purchases there’s so much we can do right on our doorstep. So what’s stopping us?

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Originally published in Village Raw magazine — https://www.villageraw.com/