Trees

Benefits of Trees

Biodiversity

Trees provide homes, food, and nesting spaces/materials to countless other species including animals, plants, and lichens.

"Snags"

Even dead trees, known as "snags" are vital habitat. When humans clear them away, important species from mushrooms to insects and even endangered birds have less places to call home or produce their next generation. 

Trees are Part of the Water Cycle

Trees can protect our soil from erosion, but lessening the impact of rain, then their roots help water seep into the ground instead of becoming run off only. In addition, trees suck up some of that rain water, storing some of it as the tree grows, while releasing the rest into our atmosphere through their leaves' stomata. This helps produce new clouds which go on to precipitates over distant lands or bodies of water.

Trees can also help reduce flooding!

Threats to Trees

Fire & Forest Fires

Australia is loosing shocking amounts of forest to livestock farmers, however forest fires have done even more damage in recent years. Every year forest fires rage in the Amazon rainforest, African forests, Australia, Canada, Russia, the USA, and other places which also provide homes to important forests. In addition to burning down trees directly, the pollutants from these fires then impacts important woodland species including lichens, moss, and countless animals.

Fireworks

In unpopulated places, fireworks cause very few wildfires, but in countries such as the USA where firework use is fairly common, the number of forest fires and wildfires spikes dramatically during popular firework seasons.

Deforestation 

This is donemostly for farming, particularly for beef and livestock feed. The lumber and paper industry is only the 4th greatest driver of deforestation.

Toilet Paper

This industry is the greatest threat to some forests, particularly the Canadian Old-Growth Boreal Forest where animals are becoming increasingly at risk of extinction due to loss of habitat.

Invasive Species

New roadways can help invasive species more easily infiltrate areas that they otherwise would not. People and pets can bring invasive seeds and insects on their clothes, hair, fur, shoes, or in firewood. This is why it's best to clean boots and other gear between hiking locations, and never import firewood from one area to another.

Flooding

Sea Level Rise & Coastal Overtopping

How to Help Trees

The following are listed (to the best of our ability and knowledge) from most effective, efficient, and eco-friendly first, to less effective, efficient, or sustainably solutions further down.

Reduce or Eliminate Deforestation

Habitat Restoration

Animals for Seed Dispersal

Animals generally do a better job of planting trees than humans do, they work for free, and they do not expend vehicle emissions or use chemicals to ship or care for plants as humans often do. When we support wildlife movements via wildlife corridors, we boost their chances of survival, and can use these corridors to help animals get closer to otherwise cut off ecosystems.

"Corvids store seeds in small caches spread across the landscape, a behavior called “scatter-hoarding.” Birds cache more seeds than they eventually eat, so some seeds sprout and scatter-hoarding becomes seed dispersal, helping trees colonize new areas. Many oaks and pines have specific adaptations to encourage dispersal by birds, producing large, nutritious seeds with protective chemicals that keep them from rotting, which encourages scatter-hoarding by eliminating the need for animals to eat the seeds immediately.

The review by Mario Pesendorfer of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and his colleagues at the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and The Nature Conservancy explores specific examples of such relationships from around the world. In Europe, Eurasian Jays are proving to be a crucial ally for oaks as habitat fragmentation and climate change increasingly impact European hardwoods. In the western U.S., researchers have shown that repeated long-distance dispersal events by Clark’s Nutcrackers are essential to establish and maintain Ponderosa Pine populations and that Pinyon Jays help maintain the tree’s genetic diversity. And in the eastern U.S., Blue Jays speed forest fire recovery by increasing their caching effort after fires and selecting canopy gaps as cache sites.

Harnessing this bird behavior may aid habitat restoration. Europeans have been aware of the relationship between jays and oaks for centuries, and managers in some areas of Western Europe are planting small stands of seed-source trees and relying on corvids to help disperse them across the landscape. In America, conservationists are exploring the possibility of reintroducing Channel Island Scrub-Jays to islands where they were extirpated to speed the recovery of oak and pine vegetation after livestock removal.

“In light of the globally changing climate and increasing habitat fragmentation, these winged dispersers that transport seeds over long distances are likely to become more important, as they enable plant populations to shift their range,” says Pesendorfer. “Since oaks and pines are important keystone species that themselves provide habitat for hundreds of animal species, such dispersal can have ecosystem-wide benefits.”" - All About Birds: Jays and Crows Act as Ecosystem Engineers 

Prescribed Fire

For millennia fire has been a recurring part of the landscape, so much so that certain species can't survive without the occasional fire. Since colonizers banned traditional fire treatments on indigenous lands, these habitats have degraded and become more prone to much larger, more intense wildfires which can burn so hot that they can even kill the more fire-tolerant species.

By bringing back traditional, and intentional, low-intensity fire to our landscapes we can sustainably fight back against weeds and invasive species, open up canopies for new saplings, help fire-reliant seeds to germinate, and even improve soil quality in these fire-dependent regions.

Plant Trees

Not all trees survive after planting, and the larger tree plantings, especially when far from civilizations usually have the worst survival rates, some even being described as "ghost forests" with few if any survivors after only 2 years.

The most successful tree plantings are in smaller numbers, close to where stewards or gardeners can easily water and care for the new trees.

Click the Plants Trees button to find cheap or even free trees near you. Some of the organizations and programs listed also offer grant money or supplies including tree stakes and other equipment.

Click the Tree Planting & Care button to learn about how to place trees appropriately, how to dig an appropriate hole , as well as proper after care including watering solutions.

Tools & Apps

Africa

Namibia

Europe

UK

National award schemes There are a number of key organisations offering grants and advice to community based projects e.g. 

Maps

International

Europe

UK