Always bothered me

[greenstorm]

For some reason folks don't seem to associate planting trees with land tenure. Have some sense, folks: if you want to be buried with a tree growing on you, want ten trees to be planted for every sweatshirt you buy, want your government to plant trees to stop global warming, those trees must all be planted on land that is then dedicated to them for (I imagine you would like) a length of time. Five years? Ten years? Two hundred years? That land was doing something before the trees were planted, what was it? Are they draining wetlands or displacing crops for this? Would trees have been planted there anyhow by someone else? (forestry companies in Canada are legally obligated to replant so anything that promises to replant on that land is a scam). Are poor people being displaced to plant the trees? Will the trees thrive on that piece of land without maintenance like watering? Are the trees intended to all live, they do get very large and usually are planted more densely in the beginning and then some die as they get bigger so the crown of the tree shades the ground. Does planting trees displace wildlife habitat for browsers or animals that need thermal cover like moose? Do you really think this is a good allocation of land, like for instance in land that can support agriculture or housing instead set aside for every dead person, or maybe just for rich dead people?

Bah.

Comments

[squirrelitude]

Hear, hear.

And, is it some monoculture that's being planted, instead of the diverse mix that might grow there instead? (Are they even appropriate species for that landscape?)

[greenstorm]

Or a diverse/invasive mix instead of a natural monoculture? How do we feel about succession and planting short-lived trees that give way to other species instead of the sexier other species? Also why does everyone hate on grasslands, I feel so bad for the prairie remnants. Does anyone even know that the entire midwest is drained by underground ditching? Why trees ffs?

[/forester]

[elusiveat]

I've been sharing this lots of places, and it seems relevant, so:
https://news.mongabay.com/2021/05/how-to-pick-a-tree-planting-project-mongabay-launches-transparency-tool-to-help-potential-supporters-decide/

[yarrowkat]

i wish i could remember where i read this, but i recently read an article about how misplaced tree planting can do more harm than good - eg, on rangeland that's not suited for trees due to soil, weather, etc - places that haven't been a forest in a geologic age or two, if ever. or people want to put a type of tree that's not right for that environment and can't survive without a lot of care - that's fine if you're committing to it in your own yard (i have several non-native fruit trees, for instance), but planting & abandoning inappropriate trees does less good than people want it to, and creates problems.

[greenstorm]

I wish there were a million such articles. I wish you couldn't remember where you read this because it was everywhere.

And, I mean, I'm a forester. I am invested in there being trees in the world.

[yarrowkat]

if i run across it again I'll definitely send it your way! it had to do with how big deciduous trees don't do well without care in the desert and how there are other ways to sequester carbon. I'm absolutely invested in the being trees where there can be trees (and let's stop deforestation in the rainforests especially) but also in site specific thinking and listening to the land.