Editor’s note: This year we continue to feature specific climate action ideas authored by UCSB lecturer in environmental studies, Deborah Williams.
Trees and shrubs are environmental quality warriors. An average mature tree absorbs and stores 48 pounds of carbon dioxide in a year. This represents one of the most cost-effective ways of reducing excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. If every American family planted one tree, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would be reduced by one billion pounds a year.
Not only do trees remove carbon dioxide from the air and store it (both above and below ground), but they also offer so many other ecosystem services, including producing oxygen, offering cooling shade, providing habitat for birds and other wildlife, buffering wind, filtering pollution from our water and air, reducing soil erosion, and beautifying our communities and planet.
Planting trees and shrubs is so rewarding, be it where we live, in our communities, on public lands, or internationally.
If you can, it is both beneficial and gratifying to plant a tree where you live. The Arbor Day Foundation provides some good advice on where to plant trees around your home to maximize energy saving benefits. Also, check out this article entitled “10 Carbon-Storing Trees and How to Plant Them,” and choose the native tree options whenever possible.
For a very comprehensive and informative guide on planting and caring for trees in Santa Barbara, the City has produced “Santa Barbara’s Community Guide to Tree Planting.” For Ventura, the University of California, Agriculture and Natural Resources Service offers a lot of practical advice.
Planting native shrubs around your home is also a very positive, climate friendly option. The Santa Barbara Botanic Garden offers a terrific list of Water Wise Native Plants for the region, and Better Home & Gardens offers a list of top native plants of Southern California, which includes shrubs.
If planting where you live is not possible, there are often community planting and public land planting opportunities. County of Santa Barbara hosts native planting events throughout the year at creek restoration project sites which are very rewarding, and then you can go back and visit the trees and shrubs you planted.
The nonprofit organization Your Children’s Trees also has great tree planting events and welcomes volunteers, as does Ventura Tree Alliance, Center for Regenerative Agriculture and Ventura Land Trust.
If you do not have the opportunity to plant trees or shrubs yourself, you can donate to programs and organizations devoted to planting trees. Here are a few possibilities: The Eden Reforestation Projects, Trees for the Future, National Forest Foundation, Penny Pines Reforestation Program, Nature Conservancy (Plant a Billion Tree Project), and the Arbor Day Foundation.
Will this really matter? An important study published in the journal Science concluded that increasing forested areas in the world by about 25% has the potential to store an equivalent of approximately 25% of the current atmospheric carbon pool, and is “one of the most effective solutions at our disposal to mitigate climate change.”
Furthermore, trees can reduce heating costs 10-20% and reduce air conditioning costs by 15-35% (or help reduce the need to install air conditioning at all).
Let’s start planting!
