My Beloved Trees

Thirty three years ago I was  fortunate to buy over four acres of beautiful forest land. Bordering the national forest my property contained four 120 year old oaks. Two have gone since I lived here. Increasingly many of my oaks, pines, ash and hemlocks are dropping.

Trees in Virginia are rapidly dying due to pests, drought and disease. Also climate change exacerbates their demise by extreme weather events. Also this makes trees more susceptible to infection. 

Spongy catepiller, emerald ash bore, dutch elm disease, anthracnose (a fungal disease harming oaks and sycamores) blights and other factors are depleting my woods. 

Also dry weather, heavy storms and high winds have killed my trees. A few years ago I had a wind shear that took out a quarter acre of my red and white oaks downing nine roughly 80 year old trees.

Old open-grown trees 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.

It has been reported that the U.S. USDA’s Forest Service manages nearly 25 million acres of old growth and more than 68 million acres of mature forests on national lands.  I'm curious how much has been recently lost similar to my experience.

Old-growth forests are a vital part of our future. Healthy forests are climate resilient because they store more then 10% of our nation’s annual greenhouse gas emissions.  There are combined benefits for the climate, water, air and land protection

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.

With better land managment lets plan new trees investing in their priceless benefits.