I have done a lot of thinking on the carbon footprint reduction provided by planting trees. Right tree right place is something I have lived by for a long time as an urban and utility forester. Tree planting, as black and white as it may seem to some in terms of benefits provided, is a more nuanced topic.

If the goal of planting a tree is carbon sequestration, then the end use of the wood as timber is necessary to “permanently” sequester that carbon, and the nearer to the end of that tree’s life you harvest, the more net benefit you will gain. The tree must then have lived long enough and sequestered enough carbon to offset any human carbon inputs if the tree was started from seed elsewhere, transported, and planted, then offset the carbon required to harvest, mill, and make the lumber into finished products.

Urban trees are critical to the overall goal of reducing our carbon footprint. As urban trees get larger in the right place, they provide shade to houses and streets that ease burdens for air conditioners in the summer time, decreasing our need for electricity provided mostly by carbon sources. They also provide other benefits such as slowing, filtering, and taking up water as it flows toward our streams and rivers, decreasing erosion, sedimentation, and chemicals that end up there, and provide habitat (in most cases). There are many others to boot.

It is important to take a more nuanced view on tree planting. While planting a tree may feel like the right thing for the environment, you must think about all of the variables associated with planting that tree. How long will the tree live? How big will it get? Will this tree need to be trimmed by the local utility company? Will this tree grow into my house or underground utilities? A

No solution will ever be a silver bullet to solve any problem, and planting trees as a solution to our desire to decrease the carbon in the atmosphere is just one part of what needs to be a web of solutions.

Article that provoked these thoughts: https://www.plantlife.org.uk/uk/blog/too-much-of-a-wood-thing-caution-and-consideration-when-planting-trees?utm_source=Plantlife+emails&utm_campaign=52f5292815-MainPlantlifeEnews_February2023&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ce964b84b6-52f5292815-286173594&mc_cid=52f5292815&mc_eid=2feda51527