Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

Suuperdad t1_jd89vfk wrote

Reply to comment by ztmwvo in I write The Washington Post’s Climate Coach column, where I help people figure out what they can do to help curb climate change. Ask me Anything! by washingtonpost

I can help with this. I help design ecosystems that minic nature (Canadian Permaculture Legacy on youtube).

Stop thinking about what is the best tree. Planting trees isn't the solution. Trees are fragile. We shouldn't be sequestering carbon using "pines in lines".

We should be planting ecosystems. Trees, bushes, herbs, flowers, groundcovers. Our goal should be to design in as much diversity as possible to attract the most amount of insects, which is food for higher order creatures, and using plants that build soil life. We should use natives (to attract the insects that eat them).

This way, we aren't just planting trees, we are building soils and restoring the food chain.

Pines have very little food for other creatures. Seeviceberries on the other hand may sequester carbon slightly slower, but they attract birds. Lindens support bees. Milkweed brings in monarchs. Yarrow brings in green lace wings. Innoculated logs bring in mycelium, and habitat for insects, which are then food for frogs which are food for snakes, which are food for small mammals. Etc.

Building a robust ecosystems will leverage any benefit from the tree, by building soil, and a resilient web of life that will replicate itself along the edge of the new forest.

We can either plant 1000 trees that will die in 20 years and create a dead ecosystem, or we can plant 1000 trees, flowers, bushes and herbs that will replicate themselves and create a system where birds and squirrels now plant new trees, bees spread pollen, dynamic accumulators build topsoil, etc.

5

ztmwvo t1_jd8bxxg wrote

Thank you for your comment and this is info I actually already knew. I asked a one-variable question for a specific reason. Had I asked what is the best way to nurture and increase the local environment of flora and fauna, your response would have been brilliantly on-point. Again, your comment was very good.

I am just curious from a scientific standpoint, which types of trees more efficiently capture carbon? I’m not going to plant anything as my yard is 8’ x 10’ and I live in the city. There is a 100 year old maple in the strip between the sidewalk and the street that the city is going to cut down and I was curious what type of tree could occupy that spot that captured carbon more efficiently, if any.

2

Suuperdad t1_jd9367k wrote

Where abouts are you I'm Denver? If I know what zone I can make a recommendation.

But for example, if purely sequestering carbon is your goal, you would plant hemp and cut it very regularly. It may not make many friends. Or you could plant Paulonia Tomentosa, a nasty invasive, but world's fastest growing tree.

But if you want a more holistic approach, I could give a sample polyculture guild you could use if I knew what zone you were on. For example, NW Denver is almost zone 7, whereas South East Denver is as low as zone 4b or 5a.

1