We, at Sumting, are building a digital platform so that everyone, anywhere, can contribute to restoring nature and fighting climate change. One of the areas in which you can contribute is planting a wide variety of trees in various locations around the world. Forests are one of the most cost-efficient ways to achieve our goal to restore nature and combat climate change. Read more about the benefits of reforestation in this article.
Trees clean our air
Trees are the lungs of our planet.It is pretty cool to know that in season a fully grown tree can produce as much oxygen as 10 people breathe in a year. But providing oxygen is not the only way trees contribute to the air we breathe. Trees also absorb and store carbon dioxide in their wood and roots, which helps to draw down carbon from the atmosphere and fight global warming. For example, the trees our partner Black Jaguar Foundation plant in the Amazon rainforest are estimated to store an average 189 kg of carbon dioxide when they are full-grown!
To ensure a real, and sustainable capture of carbon it’s essential that the trees grow to maturity and are part of a biodiverse forest ecosystem that can sustain itself. Project partners work hard to achieve that, and you can see a breakdown of their expenses on these important activities on our platform.
Trees protect our soil and filter our groundwater
Trees act like natural dams on river banks for run-off water. What is run-off water? Run-off occurs when river banks overflow due to floods, storms or heavy rain and the land cannot absorb the excess water. Trees protect us from this surplus of water by increasing the absorptive capacity of the soil and doing their part by absorbing the water with their roots.
Trees can absorb water fast and then release it slowly in the form of vapour through their leaves, essentially watering the ecosystems around them whilst also serving as a filter that takes out sludge and pollutants for smaller, more vulnerable shoots.
Trees cool down
Trees cool down and shade the streets of cities around the world. In year-round warm cities such as Los Angeles and San Francisco trees can play a vital role in cooling the streets down. Trees provide shade so the stone pavements and release water vapour in the air through their leaves. Moreover, trees use a process called transpiration to cool the local air temperature down. Trees move groundwater from their roots to their branches and leaves and eventually the water in the leaves evaporates, mixes with the local air and cools it down.
Trees are cost-effective
Not only do trees filter both water and air, protect us from drought and floods and cool us down but they are also one of the most cost effective solutions to combat climate change! Trees are mostly self-sufficient as the only things they need are water and sunlight. After planting saplings our partners take care of the trees for 3 - 5 years to ensure they mature and can grow, becoming part of a self-sustaining forest that can be a habitat for wildlife as well!
Planting the trees: a crucial first step
When planting trees for the environment it is important to do it on a large scale. But how do you do that? The first crucial step is selecting the correct native seeds. Most of the time the first step is to plant fast-growing species, in order to create an adequate soil and micro ecosystem for a more diverse species of trees and bushes in the later stage. Selecting species that do not compete is very important since we want to build a self-sustaining forest as quickly as possible.
Second step: The Nursery and planting!
Tree engineers build nurseries to help the seeds grow into seedlings, they need to be monitored constantly to have the highest chance of becoming a seedling. After carefully monitoring the seeds for about 12 weeks the seedlings have become independent enough to be planted. However the planted trees still need a lot of attention and maintenance until they are fully grown. Before planting the soil needs to be rigorously selected, prepared and then we have to wait for the right season for rainfall. After all these processes it is finally time to plant! Afterwards it will take roughly 3 - 5 years for the seedlings to become mature and self-sufficient.
We believe individuals and organisations can be a force for good, as long as we channel the contributions of the many towards one common and shared goal. Help us achieve our goal to restore and diversify forests across the globe. Contribute now and support one of our projects for reforestation: sumting.org/projects
Sources:
https://www.black-jaguar.org/how-does-restoration-work-method-1-planting-seedlings/
https://www.brightview.com/resources/article/top-10-benefits-trees
https://www.thoughtco.com/how-much-oxygen-does-one-tree-produce-606785
https://www.treepeople.org/22-benefits-of-trees/
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