Old Trees Save


On my birthday, a week ago I planted 3 trees. As I was planting my last one I heard a great crash. A beloved 100-year-old twisted white oak fell near my driveway. For the last month, I've been celebrating this renewed canopy of leaves.

Old open-grown trees will sequester far more carbon than a cluster of younger and smaller plantation trees. Open-grown trees also bring huge biodiversity benefits, temperature regulation, and other benefits.

Did you know that a mature oak produces about two thousand acorns each year but only one in ten thousand acorns reaches maturity?

Recently, the U.S. Department of Agriculture officials announced plans to conserve and steward old-growth forests. USDA’s Forest Service manages nearly 25 million acres of old growth and more than 68 million acres of mature forests on national lands. There are combined benefits for the climate, water, air, and land protection

I live next to thousands and thousands of USDA woods.

Old-growth forests are a vital part of our future. Healthy forests are climate resilient because they store more than 10% of our nation’s annual greenhouse gas emissions.

These trees "weather", where carbon dioxide is pulled from the atmosphere and eventually stored as limestone. With the drop in carbon dioxide levels, oxygen levels were able to increase. We are better understanding the ecology of the very earliest forests and their rooting systems.

I am so blessed to have several old-growth trees on my property, and I go to them to celebrate my joy.

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