Ecological Collapse

Extremely troubling news broke the other day. A research paper in the Science Magazine found that the drought in the Amazon rainforest in 2010 was more severe than the drought there in 2005. The 2005 drought was supposed to one in a hundred year event, then it happened again in 2010.

The Amazon river and it's tributaries fell to the lowest levels on record. Tracts of the forest dried out and died. Some even suffered from forest fires, which is unknown in the area as it is tropical rainforest and usually too wet to burn.

The usual area to suffer from drought in the Amazon is the Northern part. This is linked to the natural El Nino effect occurring in the Pacific and is a natural cycle The latest area was much further South and it is believed it was possibly brought on by the warming of tropical Atlantic. At the moment it is still too early to know if it is anything to do with global warming itself, but it is heavily suspected.

The big problem is the release of Carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. As the trees die and rot down or burn due to forest fires, the stored Co2 is released into the atmosphere instead of being locked up in the eco system. The 2005 drought was estimated to have released around 5 billion tons of Co2, just under the USA yearly total; 2010 has not been calculated as yet. The world cannot take this and the fear is that it could lead to a feedback loop where the extra Co2 brings more warming that leads to more drought and even more death of the forest leading to increased Co2, and so on.

So what can we do?

We can help in initiatives such as those promoted by organisations such as Conservation International, where forest is properly managed and replanted leaving virgin wood alone. Increasing the density of forest throughout the world takes up Co2 and locks it up into the eco system out of harms way.

Not Just Rainforests

Rain forests are not the only forests we need to keep in good health and replant. Northern forests such as the Boreal forest of Canada and Russia have just as exceptional Co2 lockup systems. It's all too easy to think that outside of the rain forest does not count.

So we can support big projects involving huge tracts, but it all seems very impersonal and sometimes hard to relate to. We need to do something  as individuals.

One of the simplest ways is to plant a tree of some kind in your garden. There is still time to do this in the early months of Spring. just make sure you keep it watered in Summer.

Trees are a fantastic way of locking up Co2, as they grow and get bigger and thicker you can literally see it laying down the wood which is composed of Co2.

I have no room for a tree

I hear this all the time and it just is not the case. Trees are very flexible to grow and there are methods in which very large forest trees can be kept to a manageable size, yet still lock up Co2 in their wood.

Here is a good example.

This is Pat's tree, it is about 20 years old, an Ash tree (Fraxinus excelsior) or the European Ash. Pat has this tree trimmed every Winter to keep the shape. The trunk and branches are lovely and thick, making a quite marvelous architectural look, and there is loads of Co2 locked in that wood. If it was allowed to grow normally it could reach 20-35 metres tall, a very large tree.

Ok so she is not locking so much Co2  up in it as it would do growing normally, but as they say every little helps. A big plus is the benefits to wildlife in the area who can take advantage of the tree environment.

We have numerous trees in our garden, some are fully grown specimens but others are kept smaller through pollarding.

Pollarding

Pollarding is a method where a tree is harvested for wood by trimming the branches when they reach a certain size. The wood can be used for various things or simply as fire wood. A pollarded tree is cut at or above head height, that's assuming you are of fairly normal height.

An Ash pollard that is harvested for fire wood.

You may think now, aha, if you burn the wood the Co2 is released so you gain nothing. Not so. Each time you harvest the wood and burn it, the tree reabsorbs the Co2 released by burning to make new branches, ready to harvest in future years. Then comes the wonderful bit. The trunk keeps getting bigger and bigger over the years. The tree lays down more wood in the trunk taking in and locking up ever more Co2 and even more wonderful, a pollarded tree can outlive a natural tree by around 4 times the life span and sometimes more. Some of the very old Oaks in Britain that are centuries old were originally pollard trees used for building wooden ships in the Tudor period. Co2 locked up for centuries.

This is a pollarded Sweet Chestnut (Castanea sativa) we grow for sticks.

Pollarding is a great way of growing trees and keeping them at a reasonable height, yet suck out Co2 from the atmosphere.

For more definition on pollarding have a look at Wikipedia .

Coppice Trees

Another method is to coppice trees. This does not lay down quite so much Co2 in the trunks but is still useful making plenty of  branches for various uses and you do create a very long lived trunk of tree.

This is quite a nice young Willow coppice being started that I saw in a garden. These trunks will over a number of years get bigger and bigger and the poll where it shoots out of will become wonderfully gnarly.

More definition of Coppicing trees again at Wikipedia .

We can make a direct difference as individuals within our own immediate environment, just get planting.