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Any ecologist would tell you that trees plant themselves if left alone. The real question is not how to get people to plant trees, it's how to get people to lea

Any ecologist would tell you that trees plant themselves if left alone. The real question is not how to get people to plant trees, it's how to get people to leave trees and the areas where they will grow alone. That's in the majority of places where trees would normally grow. Of course in some ecosystems like a full desert, we can help nature do it's thing. And we can also help along the natural process by selectively planting additional species. In the US tree planting is about foresty not nature or the environment. Forestry is the planting and managing trees for economic gain, usually for pulp or lumber often by planting only one or two species. So, another misleading thing would be that forestry involves planting several times as many trees and then weeding, culling, thinning out the trees. So one misleading statistic you will find is something like "we planted 1 million trees", where the actual number of trees finally will be something like 100,000. Trees come with their own built in reproductive system via seeds, acorn and the like. The urge to plant forests is a human urge to meddle and fix things. This urge is also the reason why the forests were cleared and nature curtailed. This urge should, in most of the world, be resisted if we are to let nature do it's own thing.

DanBC 6y ago
> Any ecologist would tell you that trees plant themselves if left alone. They'd also tell you that the attrition rates are terrible.
786caeefb13016 6y ago
Trees are planted in urban environments all the time. In this kind of environment, "leaving it alone" is unfortunately not an option, although I agree it would be best for the trees. The Miyawaki method presents a stark alternative to the recommendations of the International Society of Arboriculture, with many benefits. Maybe people want a Miyawaki forest in a city to help with runoff, air quality, and temperature regulation. On the other hand, maybe people prefer sparsely placed trees which don't obscure their views of road signs and intersections, or provide shade over a lawn for congregation.
hinkley 6y ago
Planted also doesn't mean 'survived'. You plant these trees among disturbed soil and broken branches. The trees left behind are supposed to harbor species that will repopulate, but those species are used to the water levels and shade of the closed canopy, and now they're in the middle of a hellscape that won't recover for decades, only to be chopped down again. Even if the trees are fit for the local ecology, they're now in a very bad microbiome and not all will make it.
adrianN 6y ago
Forests shape their own local climate. A deforested area can often not reforest itself successfully because the local climate changes sufficiently to be unsuitable to native tree species. The Amazonian rainforest is a good example of this. If we destroy just a little more of it, the local climate will change so that the remaining rainforest will die and turn into grasslands.

DanBC 6y ago

> Any ecologist would tell you that trees plant themselves if left alone. They'd also tell you that the attrition rates are terrible.

786caeefb13016 6y ago

Trees are planted in urban environments all the time. In this kind of environment, "leaving it alone" is unfortunately not an option, although I agree it would be best for the trees. The Miyawaki method presents a stark alternative to the recommendations of the International Society of Arboriculture, with many benefits. Maybe people want a Miyawaki forest in a city to help with runoff, air quality, and temperature regulation. On the other hand, maybe people prefer sparsely placed trees which don't obscure their views of road signs and intersections, or provide shade over a lawn for congregation.

hinkley 6y ago

Planted also doesn't mean 'survived'. You plant these trees among disturbed soil and broken branches. The trees left behind are supposed to harbor species that will repopulate, but those species are used to the water levels and shade of the closed canopy, and now they're in the middle of a hellscape that won't recover for decades, only to be chopped down again. Even if the trees are fit for the local ecology, they're now in a very bad microbiome and not all will make it.

adrianN 6y ago

Forests shape their own local climate. A deforested area can often not reforest itself successfully because the local climate changes sufficiently to be unsuitable to native tree species. The Amazonian rainforest is a good example of this. If we destroy just a little more of it, the local climate will change so that the remaining rainforest will die and turn into grasslands.